Law enforcement agencies and the courts in Cole County have united with the Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH) to give more access to treatment for mental health illness with the creation of community mental health liaisons.
The liaisons were one of Gov. Jay Nixon's Strengthening Missouri's Mental Health initiatives in 2013. Thirty liaisons are employed by community mental health centers to help coordinate services for those in need, said Debra Walker from the public affairs office for DMH.
"The goal is to form better partnerships between community mental health centers, law enforcement and courts to save valuable resources," Walker said. "The program is reducing unnecessary jail, prison and hospital stays, and improves outcomes for individuals with behavioral health issues."
Cole County's liaison is Ted Solomon of Pathways Community Health. He also serves Camden, Miller, Osage and Laclede counties.
"We deal with a lot of people with mental issues on a frequent basis," said Capt. Robert Clark of the Jefferson City Police Department. "What we have done is sit down with him (Solomon) and worked out a process for someone who is having a mental health crisis so they can get some help regardless of economic status."
When law enforcement agencies deal with people who are in need of mental health treatment, they can have them involuntarily committed with a court order if they are a danger to themselves or anyone else, Clark said.
But he said that approach can lead to a "revolving door of treatment," saying that they get their treatment from a facility and then once they are stable they get back on the streets. Once they are on the streets, they do not have access to the medication or other forms of treatment they need and that causes the cycle to repeat. So after they are arrested again, they go back into the place that just treated them.
With a liaison's help, police and courts can give people access to long-term care that they need to overcome their problems, Clark said. While the treatment doesn't guarantee success, it helps by giving those who have "fallen through the cracks" someone to turn to for help.
"There are a lot of people who are mentally ill that do not have access to help and that is opportune time for the mental liaison to work," said Sheriff Greg White. "Jail has become a repository for the mentally ill in most cases. And until the government gets a hand on the fact that a chemical imbalance is an illness the same as a broken arm is, it will stay that way."
The sheriff's office has an in-house medical team to deal with the mentally ill, and they also work with the University of Missouri Psychiatric and St. Mary's for treatment options, White said.
His office deals with two stages of mental illness. The first stage he called acute mental illness is when someone is suicidal or dangerous to others. With the second stage, the illness can be managed with treatment or medication, but without treatment the afflicted will usually wind up in jail, White said. They call in Solomon for the latter.
Solomon has worked more than 20 cases in Cole County. He described cases that he has worked where schizophrenic callers would have police checking their house constantly for imaginary intruders. In a particular case he worked, a jail had a prisoner in solitary confinement for months because of his behavior. The prisoner needed treatment and medication, not a jail cell to himself, and the guards had to spend a lot time watching over him. But through group efforts, the jail administrators and others were able to get him out of the jail and to a place that he could get treatment, Solomon said.
"A big part of the liaison project is try to save money," Solomon said, "because it costs a lot more to incarcerate people than it does to treat them."
He continued to say his job was challenging, but he likes it and the officers make him feel really appreciated. The challenges he faces are scarce resources for treatment, patients who refuse treatment because they think they don't need it, and trying to find treatment that matches insurance coverage, Solomon said.
"That situation is upsetting to me," he said about insurance not covering mental health treatment. "Because I know which services would probably help this person, but we can't get them access."