Pleasanton Receives Helen Putnam Award For Excellence

Press release from the City of Pleasanton:

PLEASANTON, CA — At the League of California Cities annual conference on September 21, 2023, the City of Pleasanton was awarded the Helen Putnam Award for Excellence for the development of its Alternate Response to Mental Health program, which seeks to strengthen the collaborative response to mental health calls for services and to boost the community’s overall behavioral health resilience.

Following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the Pleasanton City Council held several Community Listening Sessions, encouraging public dialogue regarding policing in Pleasanton. While several themes emerged from the listening sessions, residents expressed a strong desire to remove uniformed police personnel from non-criminal incidents of mental health and to offer appropriate health resources by licensed clinicians to at-risk community members.

In response to the listening sessions, Pleasanton’s city council unanimously approved the formation of a workgroup to identify a program to provide an alternative approach to addressing community members experiencing a mental health crisis. As recommended by the workgroup, funding for the Alternative Response to Mental Health program was approved in 2022 and the full program went live in January 2023.

The fully staffed unit consists of one sergeant, two officers, and two clinicians who work together to identify and follow up on calls to the police department in which a mental health crisis was included. While all officers in the Pleasanton Police Department receive de-escalation and crisis intervention training, members of the Alternate Response Unit participate in additional training on mental health services available and the Pleasanton Unified School District’s Medic First Responder course. Cross-training between sworn officers and clinicians offers valuable insight into each other’s expertise and allows for cohesive teamwork.

“By utilizing the specialized training of the licensed mental health clinicians from Bonita House Inc., and through partnerships with local health institutions, the City has significantly expanded the scope of emergency mental health resources provided to its residents and increased levels of service, compassion, and care,” said Gerry Beaudin, Pleasanton City Manager.

In its first year of operation, the Alternative Response Unit responded to over 367 calls for service; uniformed police assistance was only required in 96 of those interactions, freeing up police resources and reducing emergency psychiatric holds by 47%. Another key outcome of this program is the placement of more than 50% of the identified unhoused persons in Pleasanton into permanent or long-term housing. By engaging directly with clinicians, these vulnerable residents have been connected with even more resources throughout the city.

“The community has been extremely supportive of the City’s Alternative Response to
Mental Health program,” said Karla Brown, Mayor of Pleasanton. “I am proud of the City’s commitment to finding and implementing a program that has made such a profound impact on the Pleasanton community, and the recognition it has received from the League of California Cities.”

League of California Cities staff will attend the October 17 Pleasanton City Council
meeting to present the award in person to the Council.

For more information about the award program, visit www.helenputnam.org.

This press release was produced by the City of Pleasanton. The views expressed are the author's own.