FAIRFIELD — Police will soon have a licensed clinical social worker embedded in the department to work with the Crisis Intervention Team and the Juvenile Review Board.
The position became more of a reality after the Finance Board recently approved a range of $71,000 to $98,000 for the new position.
First Councilwoman Brenda Kupchick said the department has been sounding the alarm for a couple of years about the lack of support for youth who have committed crimes in Fairfield. She said the city’s Human Services Director, Julie DeMarco, and police officials have asked that the city fund a licensed clinical social worker position within the police department.
“This seemed like a really important item to order,” he said. “Obviously we have at-risk youth who need additional assistance. We have people with mental health issues who need services.”
Police Capt. Edward Weihe said he is pushing for the department to hire a social worker because of his work with the department’s crisis intervention program, one of the services he oversees as part of the department’s field services office. .
“The Fairfield Police Department proposes that there are multiple benefits to the agency, mental health consumers and the community at large in employing a full-time licensed clinical social worker paid for and supervised by the City of Fairfield and the Fairfield Police Department. Fairfield,” he said. he said she. “Such benefits include increased services for the City of Fairfield, specifically in the areas of mental health and addiction services.”
Weihe said the main goal is to increase residents’ access to mental health or addiction services, which would ideally lead to better resolution of mental health calls the department receives.
He said this will also create long-term benefits, including a decrease in the frequency and intensity of behavioral incidents, decrease the number of incidents for repeat callers, reduce the risk of injury to all involved and bystanders, minimize use of force incidents and minimize the potential for police and city liability.
Weihe said the crisis intervention team was created in 2011 and has gained national recognition as a progressive approach. She said discussions about hiring a social worker took place as early as 2012.
“This was not a popular idea at the time, and it did not gain traction,” he said. “However, we adapted by partnering closely with local mental health agencies and facilitating their ability to travel alongside CIT officers in the field. This approach laid the groundwork and allowed us to be ready to welcome a city employee.” .
Weihe pointed out the police accountability billwhat was past in 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd protests, requires police departments to assess the benefits of having a social worker in the field. He said the Fairfield Police Department has been doing this for several years and has seen the overall positive benefits of partnering with local mental health agencies.
“However, with the dramatic increase in requests for mental health services, our past and current practices of intermittently borrowing a mobile crisis physician from one of our community partners has not adequately met our goals and obligations to the accountability law and with the community,” he said. , noting that neighboring police departments already employ social workers.
Fairfield Police received 44 calls for mental health service in 2017, which has steadily increased to 447 for 2022 from last week. Weihe said a lot of that has to do with the department’s ability to identify and track those kinds of incidents.
While the Crisis Intervention Team is trained to recognize the signs of different types of mental health disorders, Weihe said, members don’t possess the skills to make a diagnosis, which can affect the department’s ability to recognize it as a call. of mental health.
Wiehe said existing programs, including the Fairfield Police Department’s behavioral health network, the juvenile review board and the CIT, could be better utilized if there was a social worker there to coordinate and oversee them.
Detective Beth Leetch said the caseworker would be involved in the juvenile arrest process, whether it’s helping find resources, weighing consequences or referrals, or following up with the child and family.
She said the state has made a big push to decriminalize juvenile crimes, and more youth arrests are being thrown out of court and sent back into the community for services.
“More and more they are coming back into the community,” he said. “They don’t want to see kids locked up. COVID really made juvenile crime more of a mental health issue.”
