SWAMPSCOTT — The police department’s Mental Health Task Force has been pairing up with mental wellness organizations to train their officers on how to respond to mental health calls and is collecting data on the calls to improve their responses.
“We have been able to collaborate with so many advocates, social workers and key players within the community,” Detective Ted Delano, a co-founder of the task force, said.
The task force was created a year and a half ago and has grown since then, he said. They meet the first Thursday of each month and at the last meeting they discussed the services that Eliot Community Human Services and the Department of Health has for mental wellness.
Chief Justice of Juvenile Courts in Massachusetts Amy Nechtem joined them at the last meeting. She said she noticed all of the representatives across many mental health organizations at the meeting.
“What I observed is the commitment of a collaborative system and that there was a connection not only with the police but they have significantly trained professionals that are present,” Nechtem said. “So I saw that interactive work, that care, put into each individual that was struggling in the community and creating some solutions. So it is definitely the way of the future work in mental health and behavioral health.”
The group has also been learning how to respond to mental health calls. When an officer responds to a call for service and gets on scene they assess the situation, Delano said.
“They’re able to slow down the incident, make sure that the scene is safe, make some observations in regards to the person,” Delano said. “Often we see substance abuse, whether it be drugs or alcohol, but as I said we want to be part of the solution and so that person can attain mental wellness.”
Many times the person in need of help willingly goes to the hospital. If they don’t, the officer may have to perform a Section 12 which is a “emergency restraint and hospitalization of persons posing risk of serious harm by reason of mental illness” according to malegislature.gov.
If this happens, the officer has a “supplemental” form from the police department that they fill out. It is called a “Mental Health Communication Tool” and has a wide variety of sections. One section is a “Behavioral Issues” checklist where the person filling out the form can check what the person in crisis was experiencing at the time of the call. The form goes back to the police department and a copy goes to the hospital.
“Our main goal at that time is to get services for that resident,” Delano said.
Patty Contente works at the Somerville Police Department’s Community Outreach, Help and Recovery (COHR) program and The Metro Boston Crisis Intervention Team Training (CIT) and Technical Assistance Center. She said it is important to have mental health programs built into police departments because they are “a cornerstone in each community.”
“They have a window into some of the most vulnerable populations,” Contente said.
Delano and another officer wanted to form the task force after attending CIT training sessions, he said. That training is focused on “increasing officer literacy in understanding behavioral health and applying that to calls for service,” Contente said.
“Our hope is … that a community like Swampscott will take that and say ‘okay, how can we better identify the needs in our calls for service?’ So we talked about their record management systems, how are they identifying or capturing calls for service? We talk about different ways to connect with residents and offer follow up services,” Contente said.
The task force and department has been working closely with Eliot Community Human Services Jail Diversion Director Julie Batten and an intern from Eliot. They are at the police department 10 to 12 hours a week helping with their mental health calls.
“I support the Swampscott Police Department with their PIC calls, person in crisis, so I just help them do some of their follow up, connect individuals to services, work with the police to kind of identify high risk individuals that may need further mental health support,” Batten said.
Batten has been able to provide resources and services from Eliot “in regards to mental health” Delano said.
“The people in our community may not know but Elliot is our mental health provider for this area,” Delano said. “I cannot thank Julie enough for her advocacy for these individuals.”
For the future, Delano said they hope to have all their officers trained through CIT and to have someone from Eliot in for 40 hours a week.
“I think we owe it to the residents of our town to help them. We provide a vast array of services to the community but right now, on the forefront of law enforcement services, mental health is the largest conflict I think,” Delano said.