The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office has been working with the community to create positive interactions with law enforcement. Lately, through one of its newest programs, the Behavioral Health Intervention Team, the Sheriff’s Office has been advocating for mental health.
The BHIT program began in September 2019 with just 12 detectives on the team and has since expanded to 16 detectives and two animal-assisted therapy dogs. Collaborations with community partners, such as BayCare Health System’s Behavioral Health, are making a difference, officials said.
Capt. Toni Roach said that having access to medical offices to accept urgent appointments is one of the best tools you can have.
“If a person is in crisis, they are disproportionately using resources,” Roach said. “They’re not stable, they’re at risk, and if we can leverage a little leverage to speed up their appointments, I’m not ashamed to do it.”
The show looks at a variety of things going on in the community, like how many people are disproportionately using emergency services, or people who have been detained under Florida’s Baker or Marchman Acts or the ex parte order of a judge.
“We rely heavily on colleagues and patrol officers to keep us informed about what’s going on in the community,” Roach said. “We can have an individual call 9-1-1 believing there was a break-in and someone burglarized their home, but when a patrol comes out and doesn’t see any evidence, they’ll talk to the person, and through the conversation, see symptoms. of mental illnesses that may be causing delusions and hallucinations.”
In that case, Roach added, the detective can make a referral to the behavioral health team and engage them in services. Sometimes delusions are caused by substance use, and the detective needs to figure out which way to turn.
The way you interact with an individual is very different, Roach explained. Someone with mental health issues may not think they are sick, while people with addictions have that barrier to overcome as well.
Since the inception of BHIT, the detectives have found their preferred area within the show where they excel.
“We started out very generic in what we did, and we wanted everyone to do everything,” Roach said. “We needed to be plug-and-play depending on what our needs were in the community, but of course the passion starts to fade and people find themselves in little niches.”
guard dogs
Two new additions are BHIT’s K-9 partners. Based on the interactions he’s seen, Roach said the pairings work very well. Although BHIT was not one of the first organizations to implement therapy dogs, it was at the forefront as the use of therapy dogs has become more common in the last couple of years.
Other sheriff’s departments typically use dogs to advocate for victims, Roach noted, and BHIT only uses dogs to build relationships and establish rapport. He added that the dogs are not meant to elicit a confession or comfort a person as a victim, but to use them to improve mental health. Sometimes a person will establish a relationship with a dog faster, and sometimes BHIT will use the dog as an incentive for people to follow up on dates and other services.
BHIT also fills other gaps in mental health services, including interaction with the youth population and services for veterans.
Among other services, an overdose detective works to connect people who have experienced a nonfatal overdose with services within 24 to 48 hours of the event.
“It’s to catch them when they’re in a vulnerable state but haven’t come back for the drugs,” Roach said. “If they are interested in the services, they will be brought to BayCare Health for a screening process. If they need to detox, they will land on the fast track to get to services, and the officer may even take them to where they need to be.”
If the person doesn’t need to detox, priority is given to getting an appointment as quickly as possible, Roach added. One of the benefits of his association with BayCare is that the organization allocates one slot per day for people fostered by the team. BayCare also supports case managers to participate in the program.
BHIT is a completely voluntary service, and criminality is not a qualifier or disqualifier, according to Roach. If a person wants to work with the team, the officers will also ask if he wants to work with BayCare Behavioral Health.
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