用同情回应召唤

朱莉·埃斯特利克

在一个寒冷的周六晚上, the 柯林斯堡 police respond to a home where a man hit his girlfriend several times and is now barricaded in a car threatening to harm himself. 而不是强迫他离开, mental health specialist Stephanie Booco stands by the car window calmly talking to the man. 最后，他走到外面，与警察合作.

A situation that could have led to violence and injuries instead ended in everyone leaving the scene safely. That is one of the main goals of the 柯林斯堡 Police Services Mental Health Response Team (MHRT), which matches UCHealth crisis-trained clinicians like Booco with police officers to answer emergency and non-emergency calls where someone may be suicidal, 行为不正常, 或者是需要帮助的受害者. 她们经常出现在家庭暴力的现场, 偏执或妄想引起的骚扰, 物质使用, 精神错乱的青年, 或者一个无家可归的人.

“Police interact with people in our community who have extreme needs,” Booco says. “在共同响应模型中, clinicians work in tandem with officers to de-escalate situations and calm people down. In fact, 95 percent of our calls are stabilized in place—no transport to jail or the hospital for psychiatric care is needed.”

Booco, 有执照的心理健康和成瘾咨询师, 是uhealth共同应对项目的项目主管. 共同响应程序的目标是:

• 提高所有相关人员的现场安全
• 将市民送到最合适的护理级别/连接到资源
• 避免不必要的转诊到医院急诊室
• 减少由精神疾病引起的监禁相关犯罪
• 提供后续护理协调，以确保获得护理
• Create a culture of police-mental health collaboration focusing on community need

The mental health co-responder model is being adopted in many communities in northern Colorado—and across the country—to address a growing mental health crisis amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of adequate mental health and 物质使用 resources. 2020年，全国精神疾病联盟(NAMI)报告称，每5个美国人中就有1个.S. adults has mental health concerns, and 1 in 20 has a serious mental health disorder.

Locally, some 30 percent of all adult 此外县 residents reported currently experiencing depression, anxiety, 或者是另一个心理健康问题, according to the last Community Health Survey conducted by the Health District in fall of 2019. 那些报告有心理健康问题的人经历了8.每月有6天精神状况不佳. Just over half of adults with a mental health issue said they put off care due to cost in the previous two years.

对这项服务的需求如此之大，以至于团队需要成长. “当我们开始这个项目时, we learned that there is no way that the MHRT can respond to every mental health-related call, 实在是太多了,柯林斯堡警官安妮·希尔说, a team member who is also a psychotherapist and certified addiction counselor.

Last year, two 柯林斯堡 co-responder units answered 1,892 calls for service. 今年又增加了第三名警官和临床医生, and there are currently openings for a fourth unit so that the Mental Health Response Team can be available 7:30 a.m. 到午夜，一周7天. Officers are carefully selected and receive extensive training before joining the unit.

MHRT的资金由警察部门分摊, 谁来支付所有设备和巡逻车的费用, 和UCHealth, 雇佣临床医生.

项目拓展

Mental health crisis intervention is becoming a priority in northern Colorado. 除了MHRT, SummitStone Health Partners’ Co-Responder Program partners with the 此外县 Sheriff’s Office, and the Loveland and Estes Park police departments to provide clinicians that assist on behavioral health calls.

The sheriff’s department program is made up of three clinicians, two deputies, and a supervisor. Units respond to calls throughout the county including in Red Feather Lakes, Poudre峡谷, 球场骚乱峡谷, 以及未合并地区. Between December 2021 and January 2022 they handled 185 of the 299 mental health-related calls that dispatch received, 不包括福利支票.

Elsewhere, North Range Behavioral Health in Greeley partners with police departments in Windsor and some other towns in Weld County to provide clinician co-responders.

转移选项  

E即使警察需要逮捕并提出指控, 一个人的精神健康和/或物质使用问题可能会被考虑在内. There are options for receiving treatment and repairing harm as an alternative to jail or prison for those who qualify.

The Alternatives to Incarceration for Individuals with Mental health needs (AIIM) program provides comprehensive mental health and 物质使用 treatment services and criminal justice supervision for some crimes.

在第八司法区健康法庭, 包括拉里默县和杰克逊县, 面临轻罪的人, felony, or revocation of probation can agree to a treatment plan from a judge and follow the rules of probation supervision. Even for those who complete these programs, though, the charges remain on their record.

But thanks mainly to Hill, the 柯林斯堡 officer, there is now a third option. She pushed hard for a new Mental Health Diversion Program that was launched in 2021 to provide behavioral health help for adults arrested for minor offenses in Larimer and Jackson counties. The person who is charged gets a full evaluation and treatment recommendation, 哪个被认为是罚款或社区服务. 如果他们坚持并完成课程，他们的收费就会被取消.

“You can tell when giving someone something extra to pile on is not going to help that person,希尔说. “他们在挣扎。. 进监狱不会让他们做出改变或变得更好.”

As of March, 26 people have completed Mental Health Diversion and 112 have been referred. 在看到结果之后, 物质使用 is now being added to the program to give people a chance to deal with their addiction without being locked up.

罗伯特·库克中士, 谁负责警长办公室的联合应急人员, 看到理解的区别了吗, 还有一点同情心, 能使一个人的精神状态何时影响他们的行为吗.

“有很多网上博彩澳门银河帮助过的人的成功故事, 一旦连接到必要的资源, 安定下来，不仅能再作为社会的一员发挥作用, 同时也开始茁壮成长.”