LEXINGTON, S.C. — About once a year, the South Carolina Department of Mental Health's mobile crisis team works to connect with every police department in the state to refresh behavioral health training and offer resources.
This happened a few days ago for the Lexington Police Department.
"What we often advertise to all of our officers in Lexington is our hope is that we’re able to reduce the number of behavioral health calls that they have to respond to because we’re increasing engagement with people so that they are not going into crisis as often," said Tiera Brown, a social worker and the director of justice-involved programs with Lexington Mental Health.
Brown said the goal of the mobile crisis team is to direct people with behavioral health needs to their local mental health centers instead of an emergency room or jail.
Officers had the opportunity to ask Brown about mobile crisis assessments, behavioral health resources and the 988 lifeline phone number. Brown said it's important for officers to know when a person is at risk.
"All of our calls are triaged through our Department of Mental Health call center down in Charleston, and after that, they dispatch our mobile crisis teams in each county to go out and do mental health assessments on individuals experiencing crisis," Brown said. "And our purpose is to divert people away from emergency resources that are being used inappropriately."
Brown said her mobile crisis team engages with the community once a month at pop-up events so people know they can call them instead of 911 during a mental health emergency.
"If we deem that they are not safe or they're at imminent risk to themselves or others, then there's a process where we can have them hospitalized," Brown said. "If they aren't at imminent risk for hurting themselves or anyone else, then we work on following up with them and engaging them either in therapy or peer support programs or even sometimes case management and care coordination."
She said the 988 call center in Charleston is in the same building as the mobile crisis call center. Callers can reach the mobile crisis center at 833-364-2274.
Brown said they offer care coordination, peer support, therapy, and medication to people with behavioral health needs.