Title
BJA Justice and Mental Health Collaboration (B)
This is a request for City Commission authorization to execute an agreement if the Menthal Health Collaboration Grant is awarded.
Explanation
Gainesville Police Department (GPD) has partnered with Meridian Behavioral Health Care to request a BJA Justice and Mental Health Collaboration grant to fund a 2-year, full time city-wide co-responder program, in which a police officer will partner with a masters level mental health counselor. The team will respond to calls for service involving persons with mental illness, mental health care crisis and calls involving emotionally charged situations. The team will also facilitate case staffings where numerous community providers will be asked to collaborate on solutions for high volume users of justice and mental health care services that are currently provided to these individuals in less than optimal ways.
The grant will fund two positions (police officer and mental health counselor) for 24 months. BJA requires a 20% match The commission is requested to approve funding for approximately 25% of these positions in in-kind match. Meridian is a sub-recipient of the award and the counselor position will be staffed and supported by Meridian.
The GPD and Meridian have a well-established working relationship with both formalized and informal processes in place to better serve our community with mental health care concerns. Currently we operate under a long standing MOU to facilitate Baker Acts. In the 12 years since we established our local Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) we have informally expanded our working relationship.
We have provided training to each other to ensure line level personnel understand what happens in partner disciplines. We meet regularly to work through intermittent issues with Baker Act transfers. Of late, members of GPD have sought help and guidance from Meridian providers on how to better facilitate specific individuals in the communit...
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