Mental Health Co-Responder Program

Mission: To provide professional, high quality, and comprehensive mental health and police services that enhance the quality of life for those within our community.

Vision: To make Brookhaven the safest community in Georgia through successful partnerships and a focus on reducing the stigma associated with mental illness.

Goals:

• Improve officer, consumer, and community safety;
• Help persons with mental disorders and substance addictions access medical care, rather than entering them into the criminal justice system due to illness-related behaviors;
• Provide training to first responders to identify signs and symptoms of mental illness; and
• Provide education and support to members of the Brookhaven Police Department to promote officer wellness and resiliency in the face of stressors and traumas associated with the law enforcement profession.

 History:

In October 2020, the Brookhaven Police Department formed a partnership with Behavioral Health Link (BHL) to embed mental health professionals in within the Brookhaven Police Department.  BHL is a private entity that contracts with the Georgia Department of Health and Developmental Disabilities to provide key crisis services across the state of Georgia.  BHL operates the Georgia Crisis and Access Line (GCAL) and Mobile Crisis Response Services that link callers with trained professionals to provide the most appropriate care for mental health crises, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse crises.  While these programs already served the Brookhaven area, this new collaboration allows BHL to concentrate resources where the demand for intervention is high, and permits a more rapid response to crises.

Brookhaven Police now have mental health professionals in house 40-hours each week to respond to calls for service and conduct follow-up intervention within the community in response to officer referrals.  Separately, BHL clinicians are also trained in critical incident response and may assist with serious incident debriefs and provide education to BPD officers on stress management and post-traumatic stress response.

Other Resources:

• National Alliance on Mental Illness
  • www.nami.org
• Georgia Crisis and Access Line (GCAL) App
  • https://www.georgiacollaborative.com/providers/georgia-crisis-and-access...
• Mental Health America
  • https://www.mhanational.org/
• Suicide Prevention Resource Center:
  • https://www.sprc.org/
•  National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:
  • https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
•  AFSP- American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
  • https://afsp.org/
• Georgia Overdose Prevention Project
  • https://georgiaoverdoseprevention.org/
• SAMHSA Treatment Services Locator
  • ​https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/