MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES: Cooperation among agencies improves care
Aug. 11—TRAVERSE CITY — A group of law enforcement and Northern Lakes Community Mental Health personnel have been meeting about once a month for about a year to talk about how they can better work together to improve services for those who need them in Grand Traverse County.
The group also includes people from Addiction Treatment Services, Munson Healthcare, those who work as jail diversion liaisons, a social worker who rides along with officers from the Traverse City Police Department, those on Northern Lakes crisis mobile teams and more — all of whom bring their unique perspective to addressing mental health and addiction issues, which often go hand-in-hand.
They bounce ideas off each other, they report on what's been working for the county and they visit other counties around the state to see what's working there. They also come up with new ways agencies can work together.
Sara Bush, diversion liaison for the Grand Traverse and Leelanau county jails, said it would be great to have a deputy from the sheriff's office work with the TCPD as secondary support on its Quick Response Team that responds to overdoses in the city and works to connects people to treatment. It would be helpful for people who may walk into the TCPD for mental health treatment, but don't actually live in the city, she said.
"Getting the community police officers working together ... would be a really big asset, especially to QRT," Bush said.
Interim police Chief Matthew Richmond said the grant-funded program, which includes social worker Jenn Holm's position, has limited jurisdiction.
"It's growing and growing and growing," Richmond said. "It's becoming its own entity. Every time I talk with the grant supervisors they say, 'We love what you're doing, keep it going.' It's becoming its own entity."
The grant ends in October but Richmond expects the department to add the program to its budget. "It's not going away."
Nancy Stevenson, chief operations officer for Northern Lakes Community Mental Health, reported that a 24/7 Crisis Welcoming Center that opened last year has shortened its hours because of safety reasons at night and is now open from 6 a.m. to midnight.
A combination of a staffing shortage and the fact that the building is not designed for such a center, prompted the change, Stevenson said.
A new center that will be located in the former Munson Behavioral Center is in the works, though many code and safety issues must be addressed during its renovation. When completed, the center will be a one-stop-shop for all mental health services — crisis stabilization and crisis residential services for children and adults — and will divert people from being taken to jail or emergency rooms.
Care will be provided, regardless of insurance coverage or the patient's ability to pay, according to Munson, which owns the building, with services provided by Northern Lakes.
Until then, a mental health crisis taking place in the Grand Traverse community must be addressed, Stevenson said. She'd like to expand mobile crisis teams that respond to mental health crises in the community until the center is established.
Julie Moore, executive director of health services for ATS, said the agency in the first 10 days in August has seen the highest census since before COVID.
The 17-bed ATS detox unit, which is staffed 24/7, is evolving into a mental health center, Moore said.
"We're feeling that same pressure and safety concerns in the middle of the night and it stems from the mental illness and the psychosis related to stimulants," Moore said. "We would love some trained mental health personnel side by side to treat this thoroughly and correctly and leave it 24/7."
County Commissioner Penny Morris, who also serves on the Northern Lakes board, said that, in the past, law enforcement and Northern Lakes have not always seen eye to eye.
Changes in management have improved the relationship, she said.
"I have just been so impressed watching this group grow and change," Morris said.