The City of Lincoln is highlighting the success of its behavioral health co-responder program during National Co-Responder and Crisis Responder Week. The program is a partnership between the Lincoln Police Department and CenterPointe, with licensed behavioral health clinicians working alongside police officers to respond to people experiencing mental health or behavioral health crises.
Lincoln Police Investigator Doug Headlee says the partnership provides officers with a different perspective when responding to a crisis. “It provides clinical expertise, so we can look at it through that lens and address or come through an outcome that’s different than a traditional police response.”
CenterPointe Vice President of Community Response and Co-Responder Program Manager Amber Dierks says the program has responded to 589 calls during its first 18 months. She says 93 percent of those calls were resolved on scene, meaning only seven percent resulted in some type of involuntary intervention.
“Our goal is how do we keep people in the community? How do we actually connect them?” Dierks says 69 percent of the people contacted by co-responders received a follow-up contact, while 44 percent went on to seek services.
She says suicidal calls are the most common type of call handled by the team, followed by mental health checks. The co-responder team includes three full-time licensed clinicians. They operate seven days a week, generally from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. CenterPointe’s mobile crisis response teams provide 24-hour coverage outside those hours.
Dierks says the program is seeing increased use. July was the program’s busiest month since its launch, with 47 calls. She says the goal is to continue increasing utilization and potentially expand the team to provide two co-responders seven days a week.
Headlee says the partnership is also being used to provide mental health training to new and veteran Lincoln police officers.