In metro Atlanta, police agree to become default first responder for mental health crisis calls – WABE

Gwinnett County Police Sergeant David Smith had already spent much of his career working in the homicide and special victims units when he was asked to help start the Behavioral Health Unit (BHU) in 2021.

“My reputation has shown that I really want to help people,” Smith said. “I have a 33-year-old brother with Down syndrome, so anyone who has a disability, mental illness or anything else is very important to me.”

The BHU consists of a single police officer and a licensed mental health clinician in each police station, who work side by side to try to help people get the mental health treatment and services they need before they get caught up in the criminal justice system.

Cobb, DeKalb, Forsyth and Athens-Clarke counties have similar partnerships, but Gwinnett’s is unique because it serves one of the fastest growing counties in Georgia and the most diverse in the Southeast.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Gwinnett’s population in 2023 was 31.3% Black, 23.8% Hispanic or Latino, and 14.1% Asian.

Smith said that’s why it helps that many BHU members can speak a second language like Spanish, Arabic and Farsi.

“I feel like we have a really good, solid team of people who come from all walks of life and all experiences, and there’s always someone who can help someone,” Smith said.

That day in early July, Smith was driving to the Duluth Central Police Station to check in on his team. He was driving an unmarked Ford Explorer and wearing a simple gray polo shirt over a bulletproof vest and khaki pants, with his gun and handcuffs slung over his hips.

“You never really know what to expect,” Smith said. “Some days we’re a little slower than others, where we’re doing a series of follow-up calls … and then there are days where it doesn’t stop and we’re having one mental health crisis after another.”

The rear of Smith’s SUV features a roll cage similar to that of a traditional police vehicle, but it is equipped with cameras that monitor the front and back seats for people who might try to harm themselves.

“We try not to even handcuff them, especially if it’s voluntary, just because we don’t want them to feel like they’re being punished, because they’re not,” Smith said.

One thing he says he’s realized over the years is that many mental health crisis calls come from two main demographics: young people, who are just starting to show signs of a possible mental health problem, and older people with dementia.

“When these kinds of situations start happening, it’s the first time anyone has ever been confronted with this issue,” Smith said. “And families don’t always know what to expect. Sometimes the police are called to report an assault.”

Smith said they are sometimes taken to jail, but the unit still claims a 98 percent diversion rate.

According to the county, Gwinnett’s behavioral health unit responded to 4,800 calls in 2023, more than half of which were related to a mental health crisis.

Officials expect the unit to handle a similar workload this year.

The difference is that for the first time since the unit was launched, all six police precincts say they are fully staffed, thanks to the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners’ recent approval of a $714,000 contract extension with View Point Health, a 3% increase from 2023.

Currently, Smith said, co-responder teams take turns providing coverage from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. He hopes to have all six teams available for 24-hour coverage in the future.

Response to the crisis

Diane Dighiera, a licensed clinical social worker with View Point Health, moved to Georgia in 2022 after spending several years with the Los Angeles Police Department’s co-response program called the Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team, or SMART.

She now works with Senior Constable Kyle Howse at the Central Precinct, which is tied with Norcross’ West Precinct as the county’s busiest for 911 and mental health calls.

“My philosophy is if you focus on what’s best for (the client), you’re always going to get a good outcome,” Dighiera said. “You have to balance what they need, you know, the police department. They have calls waiting, but I’m there for the client, I’m there for them, and fortunately, with him being with me and being a police officer, he can handle the police part and do what we think is best.”

Dighiera and Howse prepare to follow a U.S. Army veteran, who they believe may have been in the throes of a bipolar episode when they met him a few days ago.

“He had found out he couldn’t go to his kid’s baby shower, so he was a little upset,” Howse said. “He was having trouble paying some internet bills, so he was a little stressed, and then his car wouldn’t start, so it all happened at the same time.”

After examining him on site, Dighiera decided that he did not meet the criteria to be taken to hospital against his will. However, she managed to convince him to seek treatment for his elbow on his own, hoping that he would also get help for his mental health while he was there.

WABE is not using the veteran’s name to protect his privacy.

“I’m doing a lot better,” the veteran said on the phone with Howse. “I slept a few days and took care of myself. I got back into my routine and I’m trying to get there, you know?”

According to the county, 223 people were involuntarily hospitalized last year, while 82 agreed to go on their own, as in the veteran’s case.

Although the duo’s actions seem to have led to a good outcome this time around, that is not always the case.

Activists demand change

Earlier this year, a retired nurse filed a federal lawsuit against Gwinnett County and one of its officers for the fatal shooting of her son, Jonathan “Dani” Laubscher, who had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, in 2022.

The lawsuit says her mother requested a mental health crisis unit, but police were dispatched instead.

The county is seeking to dismiss the case. However, it underscores what the Washington Post has been tracking: that one in five people shot by police in the United States since 2015 were in the midst of a mental health crisis.

Those deaths, along with pressure from activists like those at the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, or PAD, in Atlanta, have prompted cities across the country to change their approach to emergency calls by swapping armed police officers for unarmed civilians who can help people find housing, jobs and drug treatment.

A 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law also acknowledges that while crisis intervention teams have helped more people access mental health services, they have failed in a fundamental goal: de-escalating and reducing violence.

Back at department headquarters in Lawrenceville, Smith has not commented on the Laubscher case, but he said he has mixed feelings about the role police play in such tense situations.

“I still believe, to some extent, that it’s not the police’s job to deal with mental illness,” Smith said. “We’re just the ones who are going to be called when you call 911, so we decided we could either be ahead of the curve or we could always be behind.”