It can often end poorly when police officers deal with people in the middle of a mental crisis. A new police partnership in Columbus, Ohio, is dispatching social workers to help get patients to care they need, rather than jail. (wosunews)
Adora NamigaddeSocial worker Kristin Moreland changes the car radio from a country station to one that plays Top 40 Hits.ListenHeinzman climbs into the unmarked vehicle’s driver’s seat, and the music stays at a low, background volume. He and Moreland discuss something they can agree on: The sort of runs they plan to do that day.“Now we’re going to head out to a house for a female who we received a referral on, actually,” Moreland says.
The program aims to increase how often a mental health professional can assist officers on the scene with a client suffering from mental health issues. Officials hope the effort will reduce the number of repeat calls by clients, and lead to fewer people experiencing mental health problems being taken to jail.
“Everybody sort of realized at some point that the number of calls that we get that contain words like bipolar, schizophrenic, off meds, depressed, suicidal, all this terminology that relates to mental health, we figured out quickly that we need to do something more," Harris says. Compare that to patrol officers, who conducted 7,805 transports and took 785 people to jail - a rate of 10%. Those taken to hospitals can end up at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center, Riverside Methodist Hospital or Netcare, depending on their needs.
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