‘Precious seconds’: Metro’s Partners in Care Program now county-wide, partnering with MNPD

Mye Owens
·2 min read

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – It’s meant to act as a way to keep people out of the criminal justice system, and instead get them into the health care system. It’s part of Metro’s “Partners in Care” Program, and starting Wednesday, it’s officially in every one of Davidson County’s precincts.

“About half the people we see are needing a traditional crisis assessment. So, there is either some sort of suicidal thoughts or some sort of psychosis where we need to have a safety plan or get them into treatment or really in-depth going into this case, and that’s happening half the time,” explained Michael Randolph, the program manager with the Partners in Care Mental Health Cooperative.

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The West Precinct is the last to join the now-completed list, where the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the Mental Health Cooperative look to better serve those experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

The program partners a mental health clinician with a trained Metro officer. The program was launched in June of 2021 and since its start, units have responded to more than 27,000 calls, that includes more than 6,000 mental health crises, acording to Metro Police.

“I think it is an encouraging number as well because we are being utilized; we’re helping people who have not traditionally been helped and we are really trying to support our first responders with a population that they are now dealing with on a daily basis,” Randolph said.

Once on scene, when there is no longer a physical threat, the clinician can be there to step in and assess them.

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“Those are precious seconds and those situations can escalate just based on time. I mean, we do put a lot of emphasis on de-escalating situations that are already volatile, but sometimes you might step into one that’s less volatile, but if you don’t have the resources quick enough, it can escalate just based on humans get impatient,” explained Capt. Anthony Brooks with the MNPD. “Now, we don’t have that delay anymore and we can get individuals plugged into the care that they need and a lot faster.”

The goals of the program include:

  • Improve access to care for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

  • Divert consumers from the criminal justice system and into the healthcare system.

  • Improve the communication and coordination across all systems of care.

  • Increase the safety of all involved in crisis interactions.

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“A lot of times if you’re experiencing a crisis, jail is not the best place for you, in a jail setting and we know that. There’s times in the past we might have wanted to divert to a better form of care, but we didn’t have that option, and we have that option now,” said Brooks.

The program runs Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to midnight.

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