GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Grand Rapids Police say their partnership with Network 180 in running a mental health co-response program has been very successful in providing alternatives to making arrests and sending people to emergency room care.
Police Chief Eric Winstrom said on West Michigan's Morning News that the only options in many crisis situations used to be to take someone to an emergency room or to jail.
But the co-response program has created a culture shift when it comes to culture care in Grand Rapids. And it has led to safer outcomes for everyone involved during an emergency.
"What a special relationship: building trust with the community, building better outcomes for patients. So, this has just been a wonderful program for three years, and getting bigger and doing more," Winstrom said.
Co-Response Supervisor Sgt. Daryl Howard told WOOD Radio they have social workers available now who help intervene in the mental health crises, along with dedicated patrol officers.
"So, we're very fortunate here in West Michigan and Grand Rapids to have our partnership with Network 180. And officers enjoy it because it completes a call with a positive outcome for the whole community," Howard said.
Krissy Rutkauskas is one of the Network 180 clinicians. She is a licensed master social worker and a qualified intellectual disability professional. After they get a crisis call, she said they do some research on the person they are responding to and determine which services might be available and which treatment options might be suitable for the situation.
"When we get to the call, obviously, we can help de-escalate the situation," Rutkauskas said. "And then, we can give the individual different options and different choices on what they want to do. A lot of those options include avoiding an ambulance ride and avoiding sitting in the emergency department for hours. We can get them directly to a treatment provider and kind of skip all those other extra unnecessary steps."
Chief Winstrom told hosts Steve Kelly and Lauren Smith that the police officers gain better insight on how to handle such situations from a mental-health standpoint by walking alongside clinicians.
"It's an additional tool for the officer. As Sgt. Howard often wisely says, 'We all got into this profession because we love to solve problems, we love to make people's lives better.' And when we're called for a problem that we're not equipped to handle, then it's frustrating for us.
"This is such a big issue in our society, in our city. And we get mental health crisis calls all the time. And having the actual tools to make better outcomes for people is so empowering for officers, and it leaves you feeling like you're really having that positive impact that you got into this profession for," Chief Winstrom said.
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