Information provided by Hollister Police Department
The Hollister Police Department announced Hollister will have a new program called S.A.F.E. (Support, Awareness, Follow-up and Engagement)
San Benito County Behavioral Health Department collaborated with the Hollister Police Department to create a new program to provide emergency and continued assistance to community members suffering with mental illness and substance abuse matters. S.A.F.E pairs Behavioral Health with a police officer to respond to behavioral health matters and provide proactive preventative and connection to services.
According to the release, the S.A.F.E program will partner a police officer responding to certain types of non-criminal 911 calls with a Management Services Manager. An officer responding to mental health 911 calls generally transports people to the local emergency room to speak with a clinician. Now, when the SAFE team is working, dispatchers will assign calls related to mental health, substance abuse, or homelessness to the officer and a mental health professional. The officer and mental health professional will respond as a team.
Mental health calls for service are among the most complex and time-consuming for law enforcement. The S.A.F.E program will allow officers to be safer, reduce repeat calls for service, minimize the strain on agency resources, and connect people with mental illnesses to services, according to the release. It also states the program will increase access to Behavioral Healthcare with an increased use of crisis services: with an improved ability to identify mental health crisis, when appropriate, officers are more likely to divert individuals from the criminal justice system to crisis services.
“Working together with our Behavioral Health partners will hopefully circumvent a time consuming process that delays help to our residents in crisis and pulls our officers away from other calls. We are excited to work together to improve services to our community,” HPD Chief Carlos Reynoso said.
The release goes on to say “when you see Hollister Police Officer Esqueda and Behavioral Health Management Services Manager Nancy Abellera out in our city, please know they are working hard to provide services and assistance to those in need.”
Anyone suffering from mental illness and substance abuse can contact San Benito County Behavioral Health Department at 831-636-4020 or [email protected] for further services.
