Stafford Police, Ocean Mental Health Services To Partner In Pilot Program To Help Residents

Stafford Township police and Ocean Mental Health Services will be working together to help residents deal with unmet mental health needs and substance abuse problems, Police Chief Thomas J. Dellane said.

Details of the new pilot program will be unveiled at 3 p.m. on Thursday at the Ocean Acres Community Center at 489 Nautilus Drive in Manahawkin. Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato and Stafford Mayor John Spodofora will also attend, the chief said.

Officers often respond to a crisis that may not be criminal, he said.

"Our officers diffuse the crisis but do not have the level of training necessary to effectively address the underlying root cause of the crisis," Dellane said. "As a result, the crisis often will re-occur and at times escalate resulting in the need for our officers to spend additional time diffusing these incidents. Our officers recognized that arresting the person is not always the best answer to diffuse the crisis."

Ocean County is the home to the largest concentration of senior citizens and veterans in the state. It also experiences the second largest number of psychiatric emergency screening of any county in the state, he said.

"We believe that greater collaboration with the mental health community is needed to meet our moral obligation to better assist people in crisis," Dellane said.

The program calls for officers to make referrals to trained licensed clinical social workers who will follow up with the individuals. Cases could involve mental health issues, substance abuse issues, economic hardship problems, isolation, particularly with social services, health problems and family discord.

The social workers will refer each case to the available and appropriate programs and treatments, the chief said.

The two agencies tried to find funding for two years, but were unsuccessful, Dellane said.

"We have been working with Sen. Cory Booker’s office and Congressman Tom MacArthur’s office and they have identified several promising grant funding opportunities," he said. "Ocean Mental Health believes so strongly in this collaborative initiative that they have agreed to self-fund the majority of the program costs until June 15, 2017 with the hope that we will have secured funding to allow this initiative to continue."

Image: Stafford Township Police Department.