CSGJC providing TTA to enhance law enforcement services and response to people with mental health disorders and substance use disorders, supporting state and local capacity for jurisdictions and field

The Council of State Governments Justice Center (CSGJC) seeks $1,000,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to provide training and technical assistance (TTA) to enhance Law Enforcement (LE) Services for Improved Agency Operations, Policies, and Response to People with mental health disorders (MHDs) and co-occurring substance use disorders (MHSUDs): support state/local capacity building for jurisdictions and the field. Our goals are to help LE agencies and their partners to improve, implement, and operationalize the following through TTA: 1) protocol, processes, and dispatch capacity for 911 and 988 responses to people with MHDs/MHSUDs; 2) best practice models for responding to people with MHDs/MHSUDs; 3) processes to identify, code, and count calls for service, resulting in a national count to be used to inform policy involving people with MHDs/MHSUDs; and 4) strategies to reduce unnecessary citizen contact with the criminal justice system.

CSGJC’s TTA will be designed to build the capacity of local and state agencies and systems to collaborate to improve services for people with MHDs/MHSUDs. Building on our crisis response work, such as Taking the Call Conference, CSGJC will provide TTA that is aligned with evidence-based practices, tailor assistance to the needs of jurisdictions, and draw on outside experts to enhance TTA.

CSGJC will focus on the following objectives:

Provide direct TTA, expert consultation, and written resources to support LE agencies and the field to enhance or improve agency operations, policies, and programming responses to people with MHDs and co-occurring MHSUDs.
Establish a national call center to: (a) receive TTA requests; (b) coordinate BJA’s 14 LE-mental health (MH) learning sites; (c) identify, code, and count calls for service involving people with MHDs/MHSUDs to understand their prevalence and response rate to them; (d) increase capacity building for 911 and 988 coordination; and (e) develop a LE related-TTA provider repository that includes BJA’s LE and MH TTA providers.

As a TTA provider for Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program and other federal grantees, we have deep experience in assisting LE and MH agencies to improve outcomes for people with MHDs and MHSUDs, with focus on best practice models, data-driven planning and program management, and system level efforts. We have developed TTA centers to respond to requests from the field and managed the LE-MH learning sites since their inception. Partner organizations will supplement our expertise including an Advisory Commission.