Mobile Crisis Team will aid Merced police on mental health emergency calls
The Merced Police Department will have help when responding to situations involving a mental health crisis with the formation of the Merced County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Mobile Crisis Response Team.
The announcement was made during a news conference at Applegate Park on Tuesday morning.
The Mobile Crisis Response Team will support the Merced Police Department by teaming officers with professionals from BHRS who are trained in culturally humble, trauma-informed crisis intervention methods.
“This is the right tool at the right time,” said Merced Mayor Mike Murphy. “We are giving law enforcement the help and assistance they need with professionals trained in the mental health field.”
A similar partnership is being established with the Merced County Sheriff’s Office.
“There has been a lot of focus nationally and locally on better responses to mental health cases,” Murphy said. “Our view is the City of Merced is not taking away resources from the police department. We’re augmenting them with behavior specialists. We’re not defunding them. We’re adding more support.”
Murphy said the addition of the Mobile Crisis Response Team will allow mental health professionals to be involved in situations where they are needed from the start. In the past, these cases were handed off from law enforcement to mental health professionals.
“It’s a good move for Merced because it embeds mental health professionals with law enforcement professionals,” Murphy said. “Our police officers are well-trained, but at the end of the day they are not mental health clinicians.”
According to Merced County District 4 Supervisor Lloyd Pareira, the focus of the Mobile Crisis Response Team is to provide crisis intervention, evaluation assessment and referrals to people who may be experiencing behavior health emergencies.
“Through this collaborative effort the goal is to improve access to mental health services, reduce psychiatric hospitalization rates and provide appropriate linkage to services for those experiencing a behavioral health crisis.”
Calls to police aren’t always about crime
Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Director Genevieve G. Valentine said the goal of the Mobile Crisis Response Team is to alleviate the demand on the local emergency rooms and divert individuals from detention facilities and prison.
“Experiencing homelessness is not a crime,” Valentine said. “Experiencing and living with a mental illness is not a crime. Thus, the Behavioral Health and Recovery Services believe this collaborative will provide critical assessment, intervention and referrals while also diverting individuals, including youth with mental health and substance abuse disorders away from jails, away from detention facilities and away from prison.”
The City of Merced’s existing Disruptive Area Response Team (DART) will work with the Mobile Crisis Response Team to evaluate individual needs and then provide linkage to the appropriate level of behavioral health service or community referral.
Merced County is funding the positions through a grant and existing funding.
“We have many incidents that don’t need a response of a badge and a gun, but need something specialized,” said Interim Police Chief Tom Cavallero. “Now we have that our officers have extensive training in how to handle situations, but they are not the mental health professionals that the Mobile Crisis Response Team will bring to the community.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 12:52 PM.
