Cities to split cost of mental health professional

Police departments in Johnson County each year answer hundreds of calls involving people who are having mental health crises or substance abuse problems.

In the past, many of those calls ended with the person headed to jail or taken to a hospital emergency room.

But under a newly expanded program through the Johnson County Mental Health Center, 13 Johnson County cities will soon have mental health professionals on call who can come to the scene of these emergencies, keep situations from escalating and help the people get the psychiatric or counseling assistance they needed.

County commissioners earlier this month signed off on hiring a mental health “co-responder” to work with police departments in nine northeast Johnson County communities.

The cities — Prairie Village, Leawood, Merriam, Roeland Park, Mission, Fairway, Westwood, Westwood Hills and Mission Hills — will split the costs of the co-responder, estimated at $98,393 in salary and benefits and up to $7,500 in annual expenses.

They join Olathe, which has used a co-responder since 2011, and Overland Park, which received a co-responder of its own in 2013. Shawnee and Lenexa signed on to share a co-responder in February.

“This is just another example of how our communities understand the importance of a strong mental health safety net,” Tim DeWeese, the center’s director, said in a release.

Besides police emergencies, the co-responders provide mental health referrals, coordinate care for the people involved, review police reports and work with families to prevent mental health and substance abuse problems from leading to criminal charges.

Rob MacDougall, emergency services team leader for the center, said he was grateful the cities were willing to work together on the project and that the co-responder would address a real need the individual cities have dealing with mental health calls.

“It’s a desire for collaboration,” MacDougall said.

He said the program has already led to lower incarceration rates and fewer hospitalizations in the other cities using co-responders.

Last year, police in Olathe and Overland Park requested the co-responder help on 1,184 mental health calls. Of those, less than 2 percent of the people involved were arrested and around 4 percent required a trip to the emergency room.

“I like to say it’s the right intervention at the right time,” MacDougall said.

MacDougall said the new co-responder will be available in early fall and will generally work from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays. He said research showed those were the hours when most mental health calls are generated and, unlike earlier in the day, there are fewer mental health resources available.

Even as the county prepares for the newest expansion of the co-responder program, mental health center officials are looking forward.

Olathe and Overland Park are considering adding a second co-responder for each city, and the center is looking at the need for mental health assistance in western and southern Johnson County.

“Our goal is to have at least one co-responder for geographically all of Johnson County,” MacDougall said.

This story was originally published July 28, 2016 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Cities to split cost of mental health professional."