Police-Mental Health Partnership In Ithace and Tompkins County

In 1996, following a tragedy in Ithaca in which a person with mental illness was killed by police after she fatally stabbed a police inspector, Lt. Beau Saul of the Ithaca Police Department and Terry Garahan of Tompkins County Mental Health sat down together to fashion a collaborative relationship between both agencies.  The Balancing Justice Mental Health Task Force and Alliance for the Mentally Ill affiliate of Ontario, Yates and Seneca Counties invited Lt. Saul and Mr. Garahan to give a presentation in Geneva on October 3.

The program, which evolved in Ithaca, has attracted nation wide attention, including a segment on CBS 60 minutes and a feature article by the New York Times.  The Ithaca model enables on-call mental health workers to assist police officers on crisis calls, and puts heavy emphasis on carrying out follow-up activities, which seek to avert more serious problems.  The police department knows from experience the identities of chronic mentally ill persons in the community about whom many calls to police are made.  Mental health workers check the daily police logs and visit those individuals with potential for running into trouble with the law.  The MH worker tries to persuade these individuals to seek treatment.  An informal mental health court is in operation.

After four years, the benefits are clear. Calls to 911 by persons with chronic mental illness have been eliminated; calls for service regarding mentally ill persons have decreased nearly 50%; officer morale has increased and the community feels better educated and more secure.  The increase in cost (half-time position in MH) is compensated for by decrease in jail occupancy and positive outcomes for both the mentally ill and the community.  Lt. Saul and Mr. Garahan know that their system is not perfect, but consider it to be effective and believe it can be replicated elsewhere.

Jane Bentsen