originally published at: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20091213/ARTICLES/912139962/1350
Sonoma County weighs mental health response team
By BLEYS W. ROSE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 10:10 p.m.
With support from law enforcement officials, Sonoma County is studying creation of a SWAT squad of mental health professionals and substance abuse counselors that would respond to crisis situations.
That would revive in the county a shortlived approach of a decade ago.
The idea, forwarded most recently by Supervisor Shirlee Zane, is aimed at creating a rapid response team that would be called to step in during situations involving people in mental health crisis like the one that ended in the shooting death by police of 17-year-old Jeremiah Chass in Sebastopol.
That March 2007 shooting — which led to a $1.75 million settlement by the county — renewed calls for just such response teams.
“We need some type of help for law enforcement that doesn’t involve using more weapons,” Zane said.
Advocates for the mentally ill welcomed the development, saying the strategy has proved effective nationwide.
“When we heard the news about the study, we were crying and jumping up and down in our office because we were so happy,” said Rosemary Milbrath, executive director of the Sonoma County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Nearly three years after it happened, the Chass shooting — which stirred months of angry debate and led to a series of often fractious meetings between mental health advocates, residents and law enforcement — reverberated in Zane’s proposal.
“The Jeremiah Chass shooting got the community engaged,” said Sherman Blackwell, who owns residential care homes for mentally ill adults and in the wake of the teenager’s death became a prominent critic of police tactics involving mentally disturbed subjects.
“If it wasn’t for his death, the community would not have been looking at mental health issues in the way we are now,” Blackwell said.
Last Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved spending $25,000 on a feasibility study for development of “an intervention team” composed of experts in handling mental health, alcohol and other drug cases.
“That’s a great step,” Blackwell said.
County mental health services director Michael Kennedy said the study will be completed by early next summer and his department would return to supervisors with a recommendation by July. Kennedy said the intervention team would be compatible with the four-day crisis instruction that about 120 law enforcement officers have undergone over the past two years.
“The training has been a great success, but it is time for the second component of it, a mental health intervention team,” Kennedy said.
Milbrath said such an approach would not only “be the most intelligent and humane solution to mental health crisis situation” but “it’s also going to pay off in the long run” by reducing societal costs in health care and law enforcement.
She and Blackwell credited Kennedy’s department and local law enforcement officials with working collaboratively and supportively with advocates for the mentally ill.
Kennedy said the team response “is for various nonviolent behavioral problems.” According to a staff report he presented: “In cases where the individual exhibits violent and/or dangerous behavior, MIT staff would wait until law enforcement personnel have mitigated the situation prior to providing on-scene mental health and alcohol and other drug services.”
In the late 1990s, the county had a similar mobile crisis unit that paired mental health workers with police officers — but it went under after six months when grant funding ran out.
Although Berkeley and San Mateo have similar intervention teams, Kennedy said Sonoma County’s would probably only operate during hours when law enforcement experiences the heaviest load of such cases.
County Sheriff Bill Cogbill and Santa Rosa Police Chief Tom Schwedhelm told supervisors that they welcome assistance from a professional crisis intervention team.
“It gives our officers more tools to deal with this community issue,” Schwedhelm said.
Cogbill said: “Even though it will not be available 24-7, it will prevent us from having to go to these calls to begin with.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Chass shooting, Cogbill said critics were second-guessing his deputies’ actions without knowing all the facts of the case. He also said that the tragic shooting probably prevented the death of Chass’s younger brother and possible injury to other family members.
But he also was credited with being a leading official voice in favor of finding ways to strengthen law enforcement’s ability to respond effectively to calls involving the mentally ill.
The county may undertake the program in order to reduce costs that get incurred when incidents escalate and result in jail time, court appearances and even lawsuits, Zane said.
“These cases can have a tragic outcome, whether it is the family of Jeremiah Chass or the family of the officers who suffer for years and years after these incidents,” Zane said.
Under the proposal, teams would consist of licensed clinicians such as marriage and family therapists, clinical social worker and certified substance abuse counselors. The team would have authority to place people on a 72-hour hold in a psychiatric facility.
Police calls often signal the first onset of serious mental illness, Milbrath said. Effective intervention at that point might not only save lives but make it easier to treat and help people with mental illnesses in the long term.
“We think there’s going to be a much, much better outcome,” she said.
Staff Writer Jeremy Hay contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.
