One week into the Madison Police Department’s new mental health initiative, community members who work in mental health services are saying it will be beneficial to the city.
In late January, MPD Chief Mike Koval introduced a plan to reassign five police officers to work as mental health officers. These officers work solely with issues regarding mental health, such as working with people with mental illness and their service providers.
Brad Schlough, director of Community Services at Journey Mental Health Center, said the more time a police officer is able to spend with people affected with mental health, the more they get to know families and the provider community.
“Having these five officers devoted [to mental health services] allows more time for relationship building and connecting with the community,” Schlough said.
These officers do not have to respond to routine phone calls, which helps ensure they do not get interrupted if they are working with a person with mental illness, or their mental health provider.
On Koval’s blog, he refers to an incident involving a man dealing with mental health issues during his third day as chief. In the aftermath of the incident, he said there were questions on whether or not the event could have been foreseen.
“As chief, my thoughts also turned to an examination of those ‘systems’ or ‘processes’ involved: how did we get here and are we doing all we can to prevent more tragedies?” Koval said.
Danielle Oakley, director of Counseling and Consultation Services at University Health Services, said prevention is the best method when it comes to mental health. With prevention services, Oakley said people have better information and are able to get resources in place before something serious happens.
When people in the Madison community put a focus on mental health, it raises awareness, reduces stigma and activates health-seeking behavior, Oakley said. She said MPD has a powerful voice on campus and they do a great job helping students and people in the community.
“[Police] really do want to help people have their best days and not to just see people in crisis,” Oakley said.
If a crisis situation comes up, one of the mental health officers may be the one to respond, Schlough said. If that were to happen, they would know the person, the provider, the background and dynamics. Schlough said this knowledge could be helpful during the crisis.
Schlough said he believed the program would be successful. With this new program, the officers will embed themselves in a way where they can communicate fully with mental health providers, he said.
“I think over the course of the year, we will get better at problem solving, we will get better at finding ways where we can work collaboratively to provide services to those folks who might be most at risk,” Schlough said.
