Chief James McIntyre is pleased to announce that the Stoneham Police Department has added a co-response mental health clinician to the department and that all current officers have been trained in mental health first aid.
Additionally, 19 officers have received 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team training to better prepare them to assist those with mental health and substance use challenges.
“It’s our goal to respond to calls for service and the needs of our community, and the department has been seeing a rise in mental health related calls for service,” said Chief McIntyre. “We want to make sure we have our officers properly trained in recognizing someone who may be having a mental health related emergency, and to give our officers the tools they need to respond, de-escalate, and get those people the help that they need.”
Stoneham Police responded to 195 calls with a mental health component in 2020, 364 calls with a mental health component in 2021, and 449 calls with a mental health component in 2022.
The training and addition of a mental health clinician is part of the Stoneham Police Department’s work toward completing the One Mind Campaign, which seeks to improve police responses to mental health issues.
The One Mind Campaign was started by the International Association of Police Chiefs, a professional association for law enforcement leaders that provides training, technical assistance and recruitment services, in 2016. The campaign was created by a panel of law enforcement and mental health experts in an effort to address law enforcement’s response to those affected by mental health conditions.
Co-response mental health clinician Danielle Visone is now working with both Stoneham and Melrose Police thanks to a grant from the Department of Mental Health that was obtained in large part due to the work of Lt. Chris Apalakis. Lt. Apalakis also worked to obtain a DMH grant that supported the mental health first aid and CIT training for Stoneham officers.
When possible, Visone responds directly to calls involving mental health or substance use issues. She also follows up on other calls to link those in need with community resources.
Visone, as well as Outreach Recovery Coordinator Tracy Ascolillo-Rizzo, work with Eliot Community Human Service, and interface at Stoneham Police with Sgt. Chris Dalis, who oversees all of the department’s behavioral health programs and works to ensure CIT trained officers are able to respond to calls when Visone cannot.
Chief McIntyre said the addition of Visone and ongoing CIT training for officers has enabled the department to respond to and follow up on an increasing number of mental health calls, and that the work has already paid off.
“I think the clear payoff is the sheer number of emails and messages we get from family members of people who have experienced a mental health crisis that are appreciative of the efforts officers made, and of the compassion that they showed the person who was having a crisis,” Chief McIntyre said. “Showing compassion and patience and having the training is great in the long run when we can get someone to go the hospital or treatment voluntarily, instead of arresting them or fighting to get them onto a stretcher.”