SNOW HILL – A pilot program in Ocean Pines aims to address behavioral health needs in the community by partnering social workers with police.
Worcester County agencies worked together this summer to launch the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) project in Ocean Pines. The new initiative embeds social workers on shifts with first responders and law enforcement.
“One of the things we’re trying to do is take some of the pressure off our first responders,” said Mike Trader, the Worcester County Health Department’s assistant director of behavioral health. “Our law enforcement officers were sort of acting as case managers. We want to partner with them to take some of that off them.”
According to Worcester County State’s Attorney Kris Heiser, her office partnered with the Worcester County Health Department, Worcester County Sheriff’s Office and the Ocean Pines Police Department to launch the LEAD project in June. She said the idea was to have a social worker on shifts with law enforcement officers.
“In the event a first responder comes into contact with someone who has an ongoing behavioral health issue unlikely to be resolved by a one-time interaction with a first responder or by the criminal justice system generally, that shift’s social worker will be dispatched directly to the scene,” Heiser said. “They will assess the individual’s behavioral health needs, refer for services, and in some cases provide services directly.”
Trader said the concept had proven successful in other jurisdictions and when health officials heard that it was making the jobs of law enforcement easier, they wanted to get it going here. Working with Heiser’s office and the sheriff’s department, they decided to kick off the program in Ocean Pines.
“Our partners have really worked well with us,” Trader said.
A case manager now works in tandem with law enforcement on cases where there are signs of behavioral health issues. That social worker can connect the individual with any services they might need. In situations where there are homelessness or substance abuse issues, for example, that social worker can direct a person to resources that could help.
“The individual will receive help as soon as first responders recognize the issue and dispatch the social worker, and will no longer wait for follow-up by another agency days or weeks later,” Heiser said.
Trader said that by bringing various partners to the table, officials were able to ease the pressure on first responders and help people quicker. Because the pilot program with the Ocean Pines Police has gone so well, officials are hoping to eventually expand it throughout the county.
“It is our hope to catch anybody anywhere who might be struggling with behavioral health needs,” he said.
Heiser says that involving social workers in calls for service will free up police resources and cut down on non-emergency calls for service. So far, the project has been successful in getting individuals into in-patient substance abuse treatment.
“From my perspective, a prosecutor’s first priority is to seek justice and give victims a voice, but if we can simultaneously resolve whatever problem is causing the defendant to commit crime in the first place, why would we not at least attempt to do both?” Heiser said. “It does our community no good to simply prosecute a defendant for petty crimes repeatedly without considering the underlying cause of the criminal behavior, and LEAD is another tool that gets us more information to see the big picture about a defendant (many times before they even become a defendant), and then recommend a sentence that will address these underlying causes when possible.”
