Young people with mental health issues who get into trouble in Lancaster County will have a new option: a diversion program to avoid criminal prosecution and get the mental health services they need.
It will be the sixth diversion program offered by the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office and the first specifically for juveniles with identified mental health or substance-abuse needs.
“This will allow us to hold these youths accountable, while ensuring they receive the treatment they need, whether for mental health or substance-abuse disorders,†said County Attorney Pat Condon.
Creation of the diversion program will be paid for with a $622,883 federal grant.
Young people arrested or cited for nonviolent crimes could be eligible for the program, which will offer mental health therapy and someone to provide family support. The plan could also include reparation to the victim using restorative justice practices.
The goal of the program is to make sure young people get the mental health services they need at the earliest point possible, without getting into the criminal justice system, Condon said.
Criminal charges are dismissed when participants successfully complete the diversion program.
Lancaster County has had a general pretrial diversion program since the 1980s for people with few prior police contacts who are charged with misdemeanors or low-level felonies. In 2014, a second pretrial diversion program for military veterans began; in 2017, the county began offering diversion programs for adults with mental health issues and one that provides intense supervision; and earlier this year, a diversion program for adults with substance-abuse problems began.
At a Thursday news conference, county officials announced a second federal grant for $500,000 would be used to beef up crisis response and after-care community services for young people.
City officials also detailed how $150,000 in last year’s budget is being used to support police who answer mental health calls, which have increased 20% so far this year, said Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird.
The city consulted with community stakeholders about how best to use the money and as a result, will target three key areas: strengthening existing partnerships, increasing police training and exploring new non-law enforcement alternatives for responding to people suffering mental health crises.
Those efforts include:
* Hiring a third outreach worker ($40,000) for the R.E.A.L. program, which stands for Respond, Empower, Advocate and Listen. The program connects peer advocates who have experienced mental illness with people who have non-criminal interactions with police. Since its inception in 2011, more than 300 officers have made nearly 4,000 referrals to the program.
* Absorbing the cost of the R.E.A.L. program previously paid for by the Community Health Endowment.
* Creating a mental health coordinator within LPD to assist police working with human service agencies, and to identify people with mental health issues who have ongoing interactions with law enforcement.
* Increasing mental health training for police officers offered by Region V Services and local agencies. Interim Police Chief Brian Jackson said many of the recruit classes get training on responding to mental health calls and the majority of existing officers have taken the voluntary annual training. This will double the number of spots open in the sessions, allowing more officers to take the training or update training they received years earlier.
* Contracting with White Bird Clinic of Eugene, Oregon, to develop a framework for a mobile crisis intervention service program. The Oregon clinic has a professionally staffed van that responds to non-criminal situations that involve substance-abuse and mental or emotional crises.