A recent high-profile arrest of a Port Townsend man charged with assault, criminal trespass, resisting arrest and obstructing a law enforcement officer focused local attention on the intersection of law enforcement and mental health support systems in Jefferson County.

In recent weeks, local officials have been talking about how to better help people with mental health issues in the community.

Port Townsend interim police Chief Michael Evans, Adam Marquis, executive director of the private, not-for-profit Jefferson Mental Health Services (JMHS), and Port Townsend City Manager David Timmons met June 24 to talk about a team approach. The goal is to develop a preventive strategy to help people who are "high utilizers of our mental health services," Evans said. "The main objective would be to get them the help they need and to keep them out of jail."

If someone calls 911 to report a person with a mental health issue, law enforcement responds, even if no crime is being committed, Evans said. "We're not looking at this as a medical response. Now we want to treat it more as a medical issue."

Marquis said there are about 80 people who are "high utilizers" – people who end up being contacted by law enforcement, taken to Jefferson Healthcare for mental health evaluations, and winding up in jail and the court system.

"A lot of the individuals have substance-abuse issues on top of the mental issues," Evans said.

At a June 19 Coffee with a Cop event at Jefferson County Library, Sheriff Dave Stanko explained that Mental Health Court was developed as a way to help people instead of sending them to jail, much like the way Drug Court was conceived as an alternative to jailing people whose violations stem from drug addiction.

"Mental Health Court is similar. Rather than going to jail for a month, the people have to go see mental health providers" and check in at court. "We don't have anywhere to put people that have mental health problems, so they go to jail," Stanko said. "We're trying to get away from that."

"We end up being the holding place for them," said Undersheriff Joe Nole.

The costs add up. "We have to house them, provide medical care. A nurse comes in two times a week," Stanko said. Mental health providers also visit jail inmates, but can't force people to take medications, he said.

At the recent Coffee with a Cop event, Stanko was asked, "If [Jefferson County] had enough money, would that be put toward a mental health facility for people who don't belong in jail?"

"That's a societal problem," Stanko said; it afflicts communities across the nation. "Talk to your legislator."

LOCAL SOLUTIONS

Meanwhile, local officials are talking about local solutions.

JMHS has a designated mental health professional for each 24-hour shift who is notified by law enforcement or hospital staff when a person needs a mental health assessment, Marquis said.

"An issue we run into is people going to the emergency room for mental health issues [who] also have substance-abuse issues," Evans said, because "it can be up to eight hours until ... chemicals are out of their system" and a mental health assessment can be made. "We don't have anyplace to hold people," he said.

"There really isn't a clear scale," Marquis said, but looking at "how frequently [high utilizers] are utilizing 911 or the emergency room" suggests there could be a better system for helping people.

"Reading the police reports, you see it every week, you see the same people every week," Timmons said. "We've got to do a better job of it and be more supportive, across the spectrum of services."

OTHER COLLABORATORS

Other entities they hope to collaborate with include Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), Dove House Advocacy Services, Jefferson Healthcare, local schools, East Jefferson Fire Rescue and Safe Harbor Recovery Center.

Nationwide, Marquis said, "20 percent of the people use 80 percent of the resources. That is clearly the case here. We just need to get a handle on who are our top [overutilizers]. How can we help prevent them from overutilizing things that are not effective? Obviously, it's not working."

"We're trying to identify those individuals right now," Evans said.

The plan, Evans said, is to assign a police officer to work with JMHS either full-time or part-time. "Basically, we would share an office with ... a designated mental health professional. They would work together. ... [The] main objective would be to get them the help they need and keep them out of jail."

"I wouldn't suspend HIPAA with having a joint office. We would make sure we would follow all the requirements," Marquis added, referring to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which ensures privacy of medical records.

"A lot of cases involve a family, and the family is just as frustrated and traumatized as anyone," Timmons said. "What can we do to support those families so that they can provide the care that needs to be done? ... Can we give them better resources and support by having a more combined effort?"

"We want to have more of a preventative strategy," Marquis said. "Nobody has the magic solution. That's why we need to come together and find the best strategy, so these citizens have a better, holistic type of care. We're trying to get to health and wellness for these folks. It's not a complete fix. We want to keep meeting people where they're at. This is not a one-stop shop for everybody.

Evans recently applied for a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant from the U.S. Department of Justice that would pay as much as 75 percent of a police officer's salary; that officer would be assigned full-time to an interagency task force. "We might hear back in the fall," he said. "Even if we don't get a grant, we'll assign an officer with mental health, either full-time or part-time."