Funds sought for psychiatric crisis training

DOVER-FOXCROFT – County officials agreed Tuesday to seek a $30,000 grant to create and train a crisis intervention team that would respond to psychiatric emergencies in Piscataquis and southwestern Penobscot counties.

The effort to train enough people to ensure that someone would be available at all times for mental health emergencies is being spearheaded by Richard Brown, chief executive officer of the Charlotte White Center, and is backed by the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department, Mayo Regional Hospital, and several other governmental and nonprofit agencies.

The nation is experiencing growth in the number of psychiatric emergencies handled by police and hospital officials, Brown told Piscataquis County commissioners Tuesday.

Of the approximately 35,000 admissions to Maine jails each year, about 16 percent require specialized placement because of serious mental illness, he said.

Brown said a crisis intervention team could help reduce the number of arrests and incarcerations for nonviolent offenses of mentally ill people and would help improve communication between the agencies and families of people with mental illness.

Of the approximately 600 individuals arrested in Piscataquis County each year, about 100 could have the potential for mental illness, based on a state study, according to Brown. That could include someone who has not been identified with a mental illness but is on psychotropic drugs.

However, since the Piscataquis County Jail is small in comparison to other facilities, Sheriff John Goggin said Tuesday that 3 percent would be a more realistic percentage. For example, two inmates needed crisis intervention this past week, he said.

Despite the small percentage, Goggin supported the formation of the team. “For a $30,000 program to get that many people trained to deal with the mentally ill is probably a good deal for us in the long run,” he said.

The grant would pay for a 40-hour specialized training course to be taken in Portland by five people representing the hospital, Sheriff’s Department and three providers. Substitute pay also would be provided under the grant.

Those trained in Portland then would train 22 other local and county police, hospital officials and providers, according to Brown. The team would provide interim intervention until Northeast Crisis representatives arrived.

Goggin said he hoped the crisis training could be credited toward the 40 hours of training that employees of the jail and Sheriff’s Department must take every two years.

Before their vote to submit the grant, the commissioners and Goggin sought assurance that the county would not be responsible for costs in future years.

Brown said the county work force has a very small attrition rate, so the county would have long-term veterans trained and they, in turn, could continue in-house training.