Grant allows Springfield to double mental health co-responder staff, run program longer

A program that pairs Springfield police with mental health professionals and resources is getting a boost from a nearly $800,000 grant.

Monday night, the Springfield City Council approved the Springfield Police Department to accept a $797,798 grant through the Missouri Department of Public Safety's State Crisis Intervention Program. The department is using it to expand its existing mental health co-responder team.

The co-responder program is a partnership between the Springfield Police Department and Burrell Behavioral Health, initially funded by a three-year grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health.

What is the mental health co-response team?

The mental health co-response team is a partnership between the Springfield Police Department and Burrell Behavioral Health. The co-responders, who are Burrell employees, either accompany SPD officers on calls that involve mental health crises, are notified by SPD officers on a call or even listen to the police scanner and identify calls themselves, said Holli Triboulet, co-responder program project director with Burrell. Those co-responders can then offer those in crisis referrals to resources or care.

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The program launched in September 2022 with a three-year, $600,000 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health, which will end January 2025. From January 2023 to December 2023, there have been 751 instances in which co-responders worked with the public, according to Springfield Police Department Police Chief Paul Williams in a Feb. 27 Springfield City Council meeting.

"It definitely creates multiple front doors to our organization, particularly for those who are in a behavioral health crisis, and frees up officers to really focus on their core mission," said Clay Goddard, southwest region president for Burrell.

What will the grant fund?

The grant will allow the co-responder program to more than double the number of people on staff, funding salaries and benefits for three more full-time co-responders, two part-time co-responders and creating a full-time administrative support specialist position. It will also cover limited training and equipment purchases, according to the press release.

The grant will also allow staffing on days and at times that are currently not staffed for immediate response or are covered on an on-call basis. Goddard confirmed that the additional members will allow for the co-responder team to be staffed 24/7.

"With the staffing, what our goal is there is to identify those periods of time where double coverage would be very beneficial ...," Triboulet said. "And then identifying those periods of time that are OK with just one (co-responder). But it sounds like we'll be able to have two staff on at most times."

The grant is for three years.

How does this program benefit the community?

Many situations may involve a crisis but not necessarily require law enforcement intervention. The program reduces the need for police response and frees up police officers to respond to other calls.

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It's also a way for people to receive needed services.

"We're all working together to get people in crisis to help and eliminate the potential for re-occurrence," Williams said. "I've seen that decease dramatically, the number of folks we have to contact two, three, four, five times because they're connected this way."

Goddard emphasized the importance of meeting people where they're at, literally.

"By getting out in the field, we're not doing that 'Field of Dreams' approach, waiting for people to come to us," Goddard said. "We're able to get out there to resolve issues and connect, to be a better conduit for services."

Susan Szuch reports on health and food for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield police, Burrell get grant to expand co-responder program