On the Job 

As a dad, Officer Michael Coleman of the Hamilton Police Department cares deeply about the training that law enforcement receives in regard to dealing with disturbance calls -- especially those involving a person in the midst of an apparent mental-health crisis.
 
His 23-year-old daughter, “Kitty,” is severely autistic and functions at the level of a toddler. She has had some close calls and can be a handful, he said.
 
One time, she unfastened her seat belt and jumped out of her grandma’s car as it came to a stop. Grandma couldn’t get her back in the car, and Fairfield Township police and fire departments responded to the scene.
 
“When she’s hurting, she can’t communicate that and her behavior escalates,” he said. “Thankfully, they were able to get her in the squad and talk to her until I arrived.”
 
For such a crisis, police need to be well-prepared, he said. “I want officers to understand how to respond because my daughter might be the one they’re approaching.”
 
In Butler County, officers and mental-health professionals team up to handle such situations. Kathy Becker, the CEO of Transitional Living, a multifaceted mental-health agency with main offices located in Hamilton, rides frequently with police from the Hamilton, Fairfield and Middletown departments.
 
The agency is a resource for all Butler County law enforcement and is also the provider of mental-health services in the Butler County Jail as well as a resource to the Middletown City Jail.
 
As a registered social worker assistant, she became interested in working with law enforcement in the early 1990s after attending a workshop featuring Linda Boyd of the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health. Boyd talked about her work with the Los Angeles Police Department, a pioneer in the co-responder model of handling disturbance calls related to mental health.
 
“I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, why are more people not doing this?’”
 
Becker approached the police and offered her help.
 
Soon, she put together biannual in-service trainings for officers and began conducting regular roll-call training -- short sessions at the beginning of each shift.
 
“We train all of our police officers about de-escalation, signs of mental illness, how to respond to people with developmental disabilities and Alzheimer’s,” Becker said.
 
Later, she and caseworkers from Transitional Living began riding along with police during second shift.
 
“A crisis never happens during 9 to 5,” Coleman said. “If there’s a person whose behavior is scaled up, if we aren’t able to help them, and we need help, we’ll ask: ‘What is the best approach?’”
 
Once a person is engaged in services with Transitional Living, the client or a guardian signs a waiver so Becker or her staff can disclose relevant information to law enforcement or others.
 
In Butler County, there are 13 contract mental- health agencies of the Butler County Mental Health Board as well as several substance-abuse treatment agencies. There are five homeless shelters and two hospitals in the county that offer in-patient mental-health services. More than 100 churches and social-services agencies offer other aid.
 
“We try to involve all the agencies,” Coleman said. “It’s all a networking thing. If you can’t figure it out, call somebody.”
 
For those individuals who end up in the Butler County Jail, Transitional Living has added a case coordinator through additional funding through the Butler County Mental Health Board. The case coordinator works with inmates who are being released to help them connect with appropriate services in the community, be it mental-health or substance-abuse treatment.
 
“Even though mental health is our focus, we want to keep people from coming back to jail,” Becker said.
 
Coleman said the Butler County Model (also known as the Hamilton-Fairfield Model of Police Training and Intervention) works for them.
 
Having a caseworker along for the ride is advantageous for the police and the public, he said.
 
“A caseworker can advocate for that person and be with them,” Coleman said. “If we need help arranging something, they are an extra hand.”
 
“The mentally ill don’t get passed off or ignored.” 
 
When out on calls, Becker said, it’s most important to listen and offer help.
 
“Do they need a new living situation? Sometimes people are homeless and need help getting back on their feet. Maybe they need a residential program,” she said.
 
For those who are interested in the Butler County method, but don’t think they have the resources, Becker said some reallocation might be in order.
 
“As a mental-health system we need to be out there anyway,” she said. “They are investing money in jails. This is just a more practical approach to dealing with people who need help. If these were your loved ones, what would you want?”