LISTEN: Police officers are often the first to respond to someone experiencing a mental health crisis. But many don’t have the training or resources to handle the situation. A new mobile response program in Southwest Georgia could help. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge has more.

A law officer and another person sit in a car looking at papers

Members of Georgia Pines' co-responder program team in Colquitt County consult with each other.

Credit: Courtesy of Georgia Pines CSB

A person experiencing a mental health crisis is often met first by law enforcement officers without mental health training and emergency medical services without resources, especially in rural parts of Georgia, such as Decatur County, which is about 250 miles southwest of Atlanta near the Florida Panhandle.

A new co-responder program will address critical gaps in access to mental health care in Decatur County, where incarceration rates are disproportionately high, CEO for Georgia Pines Community Service Board Robert Hurn said.

The area has about double the national average of residents living in poverty, which affects the quality of education and creates a school-to-prison pipeline.

"With a public education funding system that benefits affluent counties, we clearly see income and quality of public school systems as cyclical causes of higher incarceration rates," the American Civil Liberties Union reported.

In the U.S., an estimated 2 million people with a serious mental illness are booked into jails every year.

Jails are Georgia’s largest de facto mental health facilities because of the high prevalence of mentally ill detainees. Often, they have no place else to go until a crime is committed.

That's where co-responders can help.

"A co-responder program is where we team a licensed therapist with an officer, with law enforcement, and they go out on the scenes that involve mental health, substance abuse issues," Hurn said. "The plan is to divert them from the jail system and back into the community."

The Decatur County Co-Responder program is funded by a grant from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation meant to improve global health.

"We know that mental health is a critical public health issue," said Catharine Grimes, president of the foundation. "Then, when you layer on the challenges of criminal justice involvement, the gaps in care and structural inequalities become even more stark."

The money allows the hiring of three specialists: a clinician, a case manager and a law enforcement liaison, who will be working together to provide more holistic support following immediate crisis, including counseling, treatment, employment training and referrals.

This is the fifth co-responder program that Georgia Pines has launched, Hurn said.

"Our plan here is to look at it from a different lens, where we're going to do more outreach from the jail system and have this co-responder do warm handoffs from people being released from jail in Decatur County," he said.

Tags: Georgia  Mental Health  incarceration  law enforcement  mental health crisis  Health