The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police may expand mental health unit
Proposed Gwinnett budget would put such teams at all precincts.
In her 14 years in law enforcement, one of Cpl. Tracey Reed’s favorite moments came this fall.
She didn’t lead a daring drug raid or arrest a serial killer that day. She did yardwork.
“It wasn’t anything crazy or amazing in the grand scheme of things, but to this family, it was a big deal,” Reed said.
Reed and Pej Mahdavi, director of intensive outpatient services for View Point Health, in July became the first two members of the department’s Behavioral Health Unit. Working together, they help people who come into contact with police find services and treatment for mental health problems.
One case this year involved a Gwinnett family grappling with illness and other crises that struck all at once. Their yard had been a source of pride but fell into disrepair as they struggled.
Two days after police responded to a call concerning the family, Reed and Mahdavi worked with Boy Scout Troop 56 of Lawrenceville to clean up the yard.
Now Gwinnett Commission Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson wants to expand the program.
Her proposed budget, scheduled for a vote Tuesday, includes almost $500,000 to create teams of officers and licensed mental health professionals at each of Gwinnett’s six police precincts.
Reed and Mahdavi take referrals from police officers all over the county who come across people in need of mental health support. The duo connects people to View Point’s outpatient services or helps them find other treatment. They have diverted people from jail to medical facilities, homeless shelters, community groups and counselors.
Since July, they have helped about 250 people, Reed said.
If necessary, the Behavioral Health Unit takes people to hospitals but tries to get them out of a revolving door of 72-hour involuntary commitments. When people don’t get treatment after leaving the hospital, they might end up in the mental health ward or jail.
Reed said the team works to get jail inmates the mental health services they need, but the goal is to prevent them from winding up there.
“They are people who have the potential to get lost in the system,” she said. “It’s helping people navigate a system that can be very confusing, especially when people are in crisis.”
With more behavioral health teams, Reed said, they can respond
to more calls in progress and do more to educate the public about requesting help for family members. Bottom line: More people will be helped, she said.
Officers who operate out of precincts are also more familiar with the people in the area and can more easily build rapport, she said.
People are typically referred to the behavioral health team after being subjects of 911 calls. Sometimes they have committed crimes such as public nuisance or disorderly conduct, or they threaten themselves or others.
Sometimes police respond and determine the person is experiencing a mental health crisis. Other times, family members already know and call 911 for that reason.
Detectives in the course of an investigation, code enforcement and animal control officers have also referred people to the behavioral health team, Reed said.
The behavioral health unit also trains new police recruits in how to respond effectively to people with mental health and intellectual disability disorders. They will begin in February to offer a suicide intervention training from View Point Health.
The unit is also looking at department policies and recommendations to make sure certain calls are being addressed correctly, Mahdavi said. The officers and clinicians end up learning from each other, he said.
“You’re bringing two different perspectives together,” he said. “That’s training you don’t get in the classroom.”
Hendrickson’s proposed budget includes 30 new overall police officer positions at a cost of $2.3 million. The faster those positions are filled, the faster the Behavioral Health Unit can expand, Reed said.
“It’s a big need,” she said.
The making of New Year’s resolutions — or even worse, writing about such — can be seen as cliché. But I wanted to try a different exercise for 2022 and cast a net on my social media channels to see what commuting goals people made for the new year.
There is one caveat: People could not make goals for other people. These had to be goals people could control about their own ways of getting around. These were not wishlist items they hoped other drivers or the government would accomplish.
My wife, Momo, understood the question the best and answered with a simple mea culpa: “More distance to the car in front of me.”
Great goal. Easily attainable, too. Most drivers should take a look in the mirror (rear or sideview) and consider whether they leave enough room or, more broadly, practice enough patience behind the wheel. Room to breathe leaves room to stop and room to react.
The majority of the several responses to my traveling query involved less traveling:
■ @rbrianc wrote on Twitter, “To keep commuting up the stairs to my home office.”
■ Kerry Lowery Loy echoed this sentiment bluntly on Facebook, “To not commute.”
■ Reg Griffin, a former 95.5 WSB news and traffic reporter chimed in with more specificity on Facebook .” whenever we return to the office, shifting my in-office schedule to Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, while working from home on Mondays and Fridays. Less gas, less stress, freeing up some pavement.”
Telecommuting and flex scheduling are great ways to ease the road load and improve air quality. And, as many have learned since the deadly pandemic roared to life in early 2020, the convenience of working at home really improves the quality of life.
Flex scheduling has some of the same benefits, while also breaking up the monotony of sitting in the home office for days on end. Appearing in the office once or twice a week also allows the intrinsic empathy of in-person interactions again. People should not undervalue watercooler talk.
But many employees cannot fully control whether they telecommute. Employers might mandate workers returning to the office. Bad home Wi-fi could also send people back into the workplace. However, aiming for a largely virtual job experience carries too many benefits to ignore and is very attainable, given the spread of COVID-19 these days.
One person offered to stay on a healthy course in 2022: “I’ll keep walking and riding @Martaservice like I have been for the past five years!” @Gtlaxbro34 offered on Twitter.
Thinking outside of the “driving box” is what makes population growth sustainable in this city. There just aren’t places to keep adding lanes, and then buildings, and then more lanes. Using the non-vehicle approach to commuting — whether virtual, on foot, on two wheels, or on public transit — is a great way to kill the gridlock beast with paper cuts. All approaches are needed.
And MARTA really needs higher ridership to become more viable.
Also, no matter the commuting mode, people are going to keep ordering and buying things, and the trucks need the roads to get those goods to stores and warehouses. The supply shortage might curb commerce in the short term, but demand is not decreasing and the transportation industry needs the space on the roads to move the products.
As for my resolution, I want to continue to try to drive with fewer distractions, to walk and take MARTA when those options make sense, and, like Momo, be more patient. But here is a specific one that I really dug into over Thanksgiving: I want to get better gas mileage.
Driving slower and less abruptly are the main techniques I need to use with my current vehicle. And practicing my other ongoing goals will play into the mileage milestone.
Around this time in 2021, a reckless driver plowed over and killed Sgt. Daniel Mobley on the Downtown Connector on a Saturday morning. That was a horrible way to start a dismal year of driving safety in Georgia.
Deploying all of the above goals of leaving more space between cars, working virtually, flex scheduling, walking and riding MARTA, and being more patient and less aggressive all help decrease the chances of our being a part of the same kind of tragedy that befell Sgt. Mobley.