By JULIE CUNNINGHAM

(Franklin County, MA) Three local Franklin County police departments are teaming up with a co-responding mental health clinician from Clinical Support Options, or CSO, to provide expertise in the areas of de-escalation, emotional health, and mental health when so required. The masters level clinician will have a full time office in the Greenfield police department but will be dispatched to the towns of Montague and Deerfield when needed.

“The goal is for people to remain in their community and be treated in their community,” adds CSO’s Vice President of Acute and Day Programs Jennifer LaRoche. “Our local police are highly trained and caring people. But the very virtue of the power represented in a Police uniform can set up a problematic power differential in mental health-oriented situations. So, this partnership provides a resource for our local Police Departments as they work to respond in a way that results in the most positive outcomes for all.”

Greenfield Deputy Police Chief William Gordon said that the dedicated CSO mental health clinician will be both in office in the Greenfield Police Department and when appropriate riding with police officers in their vehicles on patrol.

“The Co-Response Team will be able to lower the footprint of police involvement in behavioral health crisises, while providing scene security for increased social services, outreach and follow-up to our most vulnerable community members, as well as their families, at the time they need it most. We have been able to identify several funding sources that have been able to bring this program at no additional cost to our city and towns,” reports Deputy Chief William Gordon of the Greenfield Police Department.

Chief John Paciorek Jr. of the Deerfield Police also sated “All three police departments are looking forward to enhancing our capabilities in the community by engaging mental health professionals to assist citizens in crisis.  Police are not always the appropriate response to these calls – however, being 911, we are often the first on scene.  The faster a person in crisis can be de-escalated and identify avenues for correct treatment, the better the experience will be for them.”

This new partnership with CSO will begin May 24.