Psychiatric Evaluation, Referral, and Tracking (PERT) Team

The Bureau of Justice Assistance's (BJA) Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) is funded through the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-414), which was reauthorized in 2008 (Public Law 110-416). The primary purpose of JMHCP is to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, and mental health and substance abuse treatment systems to increase access to mental health and other treatment services for those individuals with mental illness or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. Jurisdictions are eligible to apply for planning, planning and implementation, or expansion funding through JMHCP.

The city of Portland seeks $184,940 to create the Psychiatric Evaluation, Referral, and Tracking (PERT) Team. PERT will combine the existing Liaison and CIT Programs, as well as, a newly implemented LCSW/LCPC internship program. A grant-funded, licensed mental health professional will lead the team providing supervision, coordinating training, and developing standardized policies. The expanded team will enable the Department to add a follow-up component to ensure that appropriate intervention and support is in place or referrals are done. Ultimately, the team hopes to decrease the number of repeat mental health calls by ensuring that high users of emergency services are connected with necessary services.

CA/NCF