Schuylkill County Mental Health Co-Responder Grant

Schuylkill County MHDS and the Tamaqua  Police Department (PD) sought funding for the Crisis Intervention Team Project, relating to BJA FY 22 Connect and Protect: Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Response Program Objective 1a: Design and implement a best practice program in crisis response based on present information to assist law enforcement officers during encounters with people who have MHDs or co-occurring MHSUDs: Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT). Due to the understaffing of local police departments, the goal of training 20% of County law enforcement officers (LEOs) in the 6-hour CIT Introductory Training, and the certification of  5% of all County LEOs in the 40-hour CIT Training has been determined to be unfeasible. The training and certification of the LEOs is an integral part of the partnership between criminal justice members and community mental health treatment programs forging toward a goal of improving the judicial reaction to individuals with mental illness.  To that end, the Schuylkill County MHDS and the Tamaqua PD has realigned its project to meet Program Objective 1.b. Co-Responder Teams.

Small and rural police departments typically struggle with insufficient human resources to meet service demands, averaging seven full-time sworn officers and four part-time sworn officers (Gibbs, Center for Rural Pennsylvania, Police Chiefs Serving Small and Rural Municipalities: Profiles and Concerns, 2021). Pennsylvania has more police departments than any other state in the country, and many are too small to provide a full range of police services. In fact, eighty-three percent of the municipal police departments have less than ten officers (Police Services, Regional Policing, PA DCED, 2024). In Schuylkill County, of the 67 municipalities, 24 are served by the Pennsylvania State Police, and 9 use contracted police services from another municipality. Nearly 50% of Schuylkill County’s municipalities do not have their own police force (Municipal Police Service Statistics, PA DCED, 2024). On average, the municipalities with their own police departments employ an average of 3 full-time and 4 part-time officers.  A recent survey on police employment trends found that on average, agencies are currently filling only 93% of the authorized number of positions available (Survey on Police Workforce Trends, Police Executive Research Forum, 2021).

Schuylkill County MHDS and the Tamaqua PD are prepared to transition the project from a regional to a municipal focus using the co-responder team model. The co-responder team model is a “collaborative approach to behavioral health crisis response that leverages police and mental health professionals' expertise to improve police interactions with individuals experiencing a crises, reduce the need for hospitalization, and increase the diversion of people away from the criminal justice system” (Assessing the Impact of Co-Responder Team Programs: A Review of Research  Academic Training to Inform Police Responses  Best Practice Guide, Center for Police Research and Policy, University of Cincinnati, 2021). This crisis response model pairs trained police officers with mental health professionals to respond to incidents involving individuals experiencing behavioral health crises. The model will address the specific needs of our local communities and the Tamaqua PD. One challenge faced by rural police departments is the extended response time for crisis mental health support and the lack of inpatient treatment for mental health or substance use issues. Integrating a Co-Responder team member will reduce response times, and interventions can be standardized across the entire department.

Program elements (Academic Training to Inform Police Responses Best Practice Guide, Center for Police Research and Policy, University of Cincinnati, 2021) include the following:

(1) Developing strong inter-agency collaborations

(2) Outlining clear policies and procedures

(3) Strategically building the co-responder team

(4) Marketing the program in the community

(5) Identifying available behavioral health services for diversion

(6) Identifying resources for program sustainability