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Clinical social workers to help Buffalo Police handle mental health calls

Buffalo News - 7/9/2020

The Buffalo Police Department will embed a handful of licensed clinical social workers by mid-July to work alongside police officers and respond to mental health and substance abuse calls.

The clinicians, employed by Endeavor Health Services, also will focus on steps to prevent incarceration for people who suffer from mental illness or substance abuse, according to documents filed with the City Clerk's office.

And they will help develop crisis response plans, said Endeavor CEO Elizabeth L. Mauro.

"A lot of it is diversion and helping to advocate for people and to really help them to stay safe and in the community," she said. "We want to prevent unnecessary incarceration and hospitalizations."

The agreement, which the Common Council approved Tuesday, does not cost the city any money as Endeavor received a $150,000 grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation last March to "embed" the crisis workers in the Buffalo Police and other area police agencies.

For Buffalo, Endeavor will provide three full-time clinical staff and a program supervisor. The plan also calls for six police officers and two lieutenants to be assigned to a Behavioral Health Team, but there still has to be an agreement worked out with the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, said Capt. Jeff Rinaldo.

The Behavioral Health Team would work day shifts Monday through Friday because there is not enough money available to staff the team around the clock, he said.

"The goal is really case management," Rinaldo said. "A lot of what they're going to do is not only respond to calls in progress. A lot will be following up on calls."

The partnership relates to police reform because it ensures that people who have mental health issues get treated by a professional mental health worker, said Masten Council Member Ulysees O. Wingo Sr.

"It fits because police are not social workers. They are enforcement officers. When police are called it is because something needs to be enforced," Wingo said.

The mental health professionals are expected to begin working in mid-July with a short training period, according to documents filed with the City Clerk's office.

They also will help develop and participate in BPD training.

During a June 25 meeting of the Council's Police Oversight Committee, committee members questioned why only 120 police officers out of about 700 have received crisis intervention training. The emergency meeting was called in light of recent protests and unrest in the city sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, local resentment about the way police treat minority residents and national notoriety over the department's handling of a City Hall protest.

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