Local healthcare provider seeks to create first co-response team in Houston County

The Georgia General Assembly passed legislation in 2022 that encouraged but did not require law enforcement agencies to partner with community service boards to create “co-response teams.”

Behavioral health specialists can assist officers virtually or in-person when they respond to someone experiencing a mental health crisis.

A Middle Georgia community service board is now seeking funding to establish a co-response team in Houston County.

If created, the co-response team would be available 24/7 and would partner law enforcement officials with behavioral healthcare providers to assist when responding to crises.

Middle Flint Behavioral Healthcare (MFBHC) is a community service board that serves Houston County, Peach County and nine others across Middle and Southwest Georgia.

In December, MFBHC applied for seed funding through the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) to create co-response teams in Houston County and Crisp County.

MFBHC leaders spoke with the Telegraph about what would happen if funding is granted, their crisis line currently available to the public and the importance of expanding mental healthcare resources in Middle Georgia.

Crisis hotline now available to the public

Applying for seed funding was part of MFBHC’s months-long effort since a new state law encouraging the creation of co-response teams across Georgia took effect on July 1.

At the time, MFBHC did not have the resources to start a co-response team, but they established a new crisis response team and hotline within days.

The crisis response team provides services over the phone or in-person to those experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis. It’s available to law enforcement, EMS and any member of the public who resides in MFBHC’s service area.

MFBHC’s crisis response line, 1-833-215-2545, is available Monday through Friday starting at 5 p.m. and ending at 7:30 a.m. each day and is available 24 hours a day on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

Willie Greene, chief clinical officer of MFBHC, said their goal is to respond to every crisis in 30 minutes or less.

Since long wait times can be an issue with state or other crisis lines, Greene recommends that community members reach out to MFBHC’s crisis line first.

“At the end of the day, it is Middle Flint Behavioral Healthcare’s responsibility to make sure that those individuals are enrolled in our services and get the crisis services they need,” Greene said.

Paula Woodall oversees the daily operation of MFBHC’s crisis response team. She emphasized how they can help people who call the crisis response team further services they need.

“When they call the line, if that person is not enrolled [with MFBHC], we’re able to go ahead and automatically get them enrolled,” Woodall said. “And while we’re helping them with the crisis, we can get them referred out to the services they need. Even if they for whatever reason have to be hospitalized, we’ve already begun the process of getting them those services automatically.”

Greene said it’s important for anyone who is not comfortable with using MFBHC’s crisis line knows they can also call 988, the national crisis lifeline that was rolled out last summer.

Possible co-response team in Houston County

If seed funding is granted by DBHDD to create a co-response team, it would be available 24/7 to all law enforcement agencies in Houston County. It also would not replace MFBHC’s current crisis response team.

Greene discussed what the first steps would be.

“If we got that funding, it would allow us to hire a dedicated, licensed staff member who would do nothing but work the co-response team. That person would also work with law enforcement to develop the co-response protocol committee … That committee will be responsible for gathering data, like how many calls did we get each month, what barriers are we running into and training.”

Greene said there would be extensive training between mental health professionals and law enforcement officials including ride-alongs and training on policies, procedures, de-escalation techniques and diagnoses.

“The reason why the partnership with them is so important is because we want law enforcement to focus on criminal activity,” Greene said. “Unfortunately, they spend a lot of time just trying to manage crises as it relates to mental health and substance abuse.

“They’re not paid to be mental health workers – we’re paid to do that part. So by partnering with them, it would allow them to quickly disengage from a crisis and get back to policing the community, while we can get in there and make sure that the individual gets what he or she needs.”

Woodall said the co-response team would also help reduce the chance of law enforcement officers and those in crisis further traumatizing each other during a response.

The professional hired to operate the co-response team would also be responsible for visiting jails and assessing individuals before they’re released to ensure that they are linked with mental health services.

“We work very closely with courts and we are heavily involved in the mental health accountability court in Houston County,” Greene said. “These partnerships allow us to not only work together, but to share information. Because that’s another big deal. By having that seamless line of communication, hopefully we can keep people out of jail, keep people out of the hospital, keep people from going into crisis, hopefully keep people out of court.

“That’s very important. We don’t want people locked up, we want them in the community. But in order to do that, we have to make sure that we’re providing the level of mental health services that they need, so that everyone else can focus on what they’ve been hired to do.”

Greene and Woodall look forward to finding out whether funding is granted to start the co-response team.

“We’re very excited to be doing this,” Woodall said. “Our staff is very knowledgeable and we have a very wide range working with our clients and law enforcement. I’m very proud of the work that we do and the partnerships that we have, we’ve really built these through the years. I think this is something even more for us to show continued growth especially in the times that we’re in now.”

This story was originally published January 7, 2023 at 7:00 AM.