Boone Police Department - Behavioral Health Response Project

The Town of Boone in North Carolina, with partner Mediation & Restorative Justice Center, propose to implement the Community Care Program to be executed by the Boone Police Department. The purpose of the Community Care Program is to develop and launch a plan to enhance law enforcement effectiveness when responding to behavioral and mental health service calls in the community.  The Town of Boone will use the Connect and Protect grant funds to embed social workers within the Boone Police Department to assist police officers.

The social workers responsibilities will include crisis intervention on crime-related calls, emergency mental health assessments, counseling, court advocacy, community resource referrals, community partnerships, critical incident stress management and social services training to police officers and community groups.

The goals of the Community Care Program are to 1) create a master plan for embedding a social services program into the Boone Police Department to better understand and respond to the overall mental health crisis in the community, 2) hire one full-time social worker, one full-time case worker, and multiple part-time social work interns (two per year in the Fall and in the Spring semester) to assist Boone police officers when encountering individuals with behavioral and mental health concerns during service calls, 3) provide linkages to referrals and aid in the treatment for individuals who need additional care due to their behavioral or mental state, 4) reduce co-occurring behavioral and mental health service calls and recidivism, and 5) build partnerships with local agencies to provide a behavioral and mental health network in the community, 6) supply training to the Boone Police Department on integrating social work into the Crisis Intervention Training.

The Town of Boone has never received JMHCP or Connect and Protect grant funds.