(Greenfield, MA) The Greenfield Police Department has received two grants from the Massachusetts Jail Diversion programs.
A $100,000 grant will support their Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), which Deputy Chief William Gordon says “plays a critical role” when dealing with behavioral health incidents. The department has received grants for the CIT for nearly a decade, according to the City of Greenfield. The CIT is comprised of “local mental health and addiction specialists working in partnership with the Greenfield Police Department.”
“Crisis intervention teams play a critical role in behavioral health situations,” said Deputy Chief William Gordon. “During these responses, the team provides effective crisis response that is least intrusive to people’s lives. This approach helps reduce stigma, improves crisis response and redirects people in crisis from law enforcement to mental health and addiction specialists, ultimately decreasing the criminal justice system’s further involvement in behavioral health matters.”
The second grant has doubled from what they received last year. The $200,000 Co-Response grant will allow the department to add a second full-time clinician from Clinical & Support Options. The Co-Response unit supports Greenfield, Montague, and Deerfield Police Departments.
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Mayor Roxann Wedegartner announced at Wednesday’s City Council meeting two new grants recently awarded to the Greenfield Police Department. One in the amount of $100,000 for continuing their critical incident training and another grant in the amount of $200,000, doubling last year’s grant which will expand the police department’s co-response program from one to two clinicians who are contracted from Clinical & Support Options.