Since December, Clark County Sheriff’s Deputies have welcomed a new partner to address mental health needs, which are the root of many calls for service.
The agency’s co-responder program allows deputies to call Sea Mar mental health providers if they come across someone who could benefit from treatment services, housing assistance, counseling or other assistance. Providers provide expertise, and MPs ensure everyone is safe and can take action if someone breaks the law.
The sheriff’s office says the partnership is part of a national effort to partner law enforcement and mental health providers. The partnership also aims to free up MPs’ time by allowing them to move on from the call and reducing the likelihood of being recalled on the same issue if they get the help they need.
During the first 90 days of the program, 47 consultations were referred to co-respondents. More than half of them turned to relief efforts. According to the sheriff’s office, the average time from the start of a call until medical providers arrived on scene was 30 minutes.
Laura Nichols, Seamar’s behavioral health program manager, said in an email to The Columbian that the provider’s motivation for partnering with sheriff’s offices was to provide security while interacting with people facing mental health crises. He said it was to support government officials.
“We want to make sure that when someone is having a psychotic episode or a mental health crisis, when they are feeling suicidal or feeling extremely alone, they know someone cares. “I think so,” Nichols said.
While deputies are still getting used to having seamer providers available, said Sgt. Fred Neiman said he regularly leverages the expertise of providers. Lawmakers can also connect families and other loved ones of people in crisis with mental health providers.
“We find that a significant percentage of our calls for services have underlying behavioral health issues, whether it be mental health, homelessness or substance abuse issues,” Nieman said. “So we see this as an opportunity to do some intervention beyond just criminal intervention.”
Connect local resources
Sergeant Adam Beck pointed to a common situation that deputies have encountered recently. They arrested the suspect on suspicion of domestic violence. But with her partner in prison, the victim didn’t know where to stay or what to do next. So deputies called Seamer’s mental health provider.
“Their lives have changed for the better in some ways,” Beck said of the victims. “And in the past, a deputy would have tried to assist them, maybe secured a hotel, and that would have been the end of it.
“In this situation, we were able to call the co-respondent to establish a connection and discuss resources.The co-respondent then also followed up with the person throughout the week to make sure they had the information. I was able to help them get their lives back on track or at least have some semblance of a plan to move forward,” Beck said.
The sergeant said it was rewarding to know he was able to help the deputy better assist the person.
Beck said there are a variety of resources in the region, and it’s difficult for lawmakers to know which services will be most beneficial for each person’s situation and how best to guide them to get help. He said there are cases.
“Deputies frequently respond to people in crisis and are good at talking to people and trying to solve problems, but they don’t really have the mental health training of a mobile crisis unit. We don’t have a lot of contacts and we don’t have as much contact…utilize local resources,” Beck said.
Carelon Behavioral Health funds this program with financial assistance from the Clark County Mental Health Sales Tax. The Clark County Council recently appropriated this funding.
Challenges, long-term goals
Seamer officials look forward to providing more services to the community and increasing understanding of mental health challenges in the field, said Sharna Creagan, behavioral health clinical supervisor.
“This also reduces the vicarious and secondary trauma experienced by first responders, allowing us to be there to respond and assist,” Cregan said.
One of the main challenges faced by the joint response team during the 90-day period was that most services were closed after normal business hours.
“Our team recognizes that there are gaps in care around the needs of people without a home. A number of homeless support teams have been established to meet people’s needs. However, these All of our programs operate mostly during the day,” Cregan said.
“This leaves us unable to help people in the middle of the night who are cold, wet and have nowhere to shelter,” Mr Cregan continued. “I can imagine a world where there is a huge need for 24/7 homeless assistance services and that is integrated into the county’s emergency management system.”
get help
If you or a loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis, you can contact local resources through the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or the Southwest Washington Crisis Line at 1-800-626-8137.
Nichols said the sheriff’s office receives many mental health-related calls, but not all of them meet the criteria for a true mental health crisis.
“We have done our best to work with (legislators) to expand the range of services we provide to bridge the gap in our communities and ensure individual needs are met,” Nichols said. Told.
Examples from other regions
This is not the first partnership of this kind in this field.
Vancouver police have been working with Sea Mar for about four years. The health care provider also began working with Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue in the summer of 2023, according to Sea Mar.
The sheriff’s office modeled its program in part on Vancouver’s to adopt a standardized approach.
But Beck said the sheriff’s office has made some changes. For example, he said, the county’s partnership with Seamar allows mental health providers to make outbound calls to people who contact the sheriff’s office.
“We found a need where maybe a deputy responder or co-responder wouldn’t need to or wouldn’t respond in a situation, but maybe someone could benefit from the call,” Beck said. he said.
If the program continues to be successful, the Sheriff’s Office hopes to expand it both in terms of available hours and frequency of referrals.
“We are actually very fortunate in this region to have a wealth of great community resources in the behavioral health field,” Neiman said. “One of the goals of this program, at least in my opinion, is to make more use of these resources, or to expose people to more resources that could potentially have a positive impact on their lives. I think it’s important to make sure that you can do that.”
