DES MOINES, Iowa — Over the past few years, some central Iowa police agencies have been working together with a mental health organization to prevent people from being put in jail when they could be better served elsewhere.
When 911 is called for a mental health crisis in some towns like Clive, Urbandale, Waukee and West Des Moines, crisis teams are the ones who respond.
That's thanks to a partnership between those police departments and Heart of Iowa Community Services.
"We had an increasing number of mental health calls,” said West Des Moines Police Ofc. Kenny Bensley. “And so, we knew we needed to do something."
Connecting people to mental health services and keeping them out of jail is the goal of Heart of Iowa's Crisis Intervention Training Co-Responder program.
CEO Darci Alt said since its launch, the program has prevented 279 central Iowans from being incarcerated.
"They're staying out of jail. They're staying out of the emergency departments; they're getting routed to the proper services,” Alt said. “That's exactly what we want to see."
The program partners one mental health professional and one law enforcement officer as a full-time team who arrive together on scene for mental health calls. And both members are fully trained in crisis intervention tactics.
"The huge part about this is having our whole system collaborating together. Every part of our system is talking to the other system and therefore we provide greater mental health services to the citizens that we serve," Alt said.
Bensley said he's seen great success from the crisis intervention team.
"I would love to see that this expands not just in central Iowa where we're at, but like the state, the country, just because I think that there is a real need for this and helping the individuals that are going through it," Bensley said.
Heart of Iowa Community Services said they plan to add CIT teams in the Guthrie County Sheriff's Office — as well as in Knoxville, Pella and Osceola — for a total of eight teams in central Iowa by July.
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