FAIRFIELD — Police will soon have a licensed clinical social worker in the department to work with crisis intervention teams and juvenile review boards.
The position has become more real after the Finance Committee recently approved a range of $71,000 to $98,000 for the new role.
Brenda Kapchik, the first Select Woman, said the agency had been sounding alarm bells for several years about the lack of support for youth who committed crimes in Fairfield. Human Services Director Julie DeMarco and police said they are asking the town to fund a licensed clinical social worker position within the police department.
“This seemed like a really important item to ask for,” she said. There are people who have problems with
Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Edward Weihe said he has asked the agency to hire a social worker as he is working on the agency’s crisis intervention program.
“The Fairfield Police Department will provide multiple services to the agency, mental health consumers, and the community at large by employing full-time licensed clinical social workers paid and supervised by the Town of Fairfield and the Fairfield Police Department. I suggest that there are benefits,” he said. He said. “Such benefits include increased services to the town of Fairfield, particularly in the areas of mental health and addiction services.”
Weihe said the main aim is to give residents access to mental health and addiction services, ideally leading to better resolution of mental health calls received by the department. rice field.
He said this would reduce the frequency and intensity of behavioral incidents, reduce the number of incidents of repeat callers, reduce the risk of injury to all parties and bystanders, and minimize the use of force incidents. And so on, long-term benefits are also generated. Minimize potential police and town liability.
The Crisis Intervention Team was created in 2011 and is nationally recognized as a progressive approach, Weihe said. He said discussions on hiring social workers took place in 2012.
“It wasn’t a popular idea at the time, and it didn’t get a lot of attention,” he said. “However, we have adapted by working closely with local mental health agencies and allowing them to ride with his CIT officer on site. We are ready to accept our members.”
Weihe said: police accountability billpassed In 2020, following the George Floyd protests, requiring police departments to assess the benefits of having social workers on site. He said the Fairfield Police Department has been doing this for several years and has observed the overall positive benefits of partnering with local mental health agencies.
“However, with the dramatic increase in demand for mental health services, the past and current practice of intermittently renting a mobile crisis clinician from one of our community partners will be a significant challenge to the accountability legislation and our commitment to the community. We are not fully meeting our goals and obligations,” he said.
Fairfield Police received 44 mental health calls in 2017, rising steadily to 447 in 2022 last week. Weihe said a lot of it has to do with the department’s ability to identify and track these types of incidents.
Crisis intervention teams are trained to recognize signs of various types of mental health disorders, but members lack the skills to make a diagnosis, affecting the department’s ability to recognize it as a mental health call. may give the
Wiehe said existing programs such as the Fairfield Police Behavioral Health Network, Juvenile Review Boards and CIT could be better leveraged if social workers were there to provide coordination and oversight.
Detective Beth Leach said social workers are involved in the juvenile arrest process, including helping them find resources, reviewing results and referrals, and following up with children and families.
She said the state is making great efforts to decriminalize juvenile delinquency, and more youth arrests are being dismissed from courts and sent back to the community for service.
“They are coming back into the community more and more,” she said. “They don’t want to see their children locked up. COVID has really caused juvenile delinquency, which is a mental health problem.”
