A new and symbiotic partnership between the Brunswick Police Department and Sweetser’s mobile crisis services aims to get mental health services to those who need it most, and as soon as possible.

Sweetser, a comprehensive behavioral health care organization, has had a crisis worker operating at the police station for about a month to help meet the rising behavioral health needs police are seeing in the community.

Brunswick Police Cmdr. Marc Hagan said the idea stemmed from monthly Community Solutions meetings at Mid Coast Hospital, where community partners discuss mental health issues in the greater Bath-Brunswick area.

For the last three years, Brunswick Police Department has averaged 150 protective custody calls a year, compared with an average of 82 only ten years ago, Hagan said.

Police come into contact with people in crisis in a variety of ways, he said. It may be with someone who is in clear distress in a public place, or a family member calling about a loved one they are concerned about. More and more, they are responding to theft, trespassing and disturbance calls where officers find someone in crisis.

“So as we talked about it more, we thought maybe we could serve a purpose by having somebody readily available to go out with the officers, since we’re dealing with them firsthand,” Hagan said.

While police are multifaceted and trained to deal with multiple scenarios including a mental health crisis, they simply don’t have the level of training a crisis worker does. Often individuals are intimidated or put off by an officer arriving in uniform, so they can talk to the crisis worker instead.

“The potential is obvious, if we can get to somebody faster with the appropriate services,” Hagan said.

Brunswick police are now working with Sweeter intervention specialist Madelyn Phillips.

Danielle Parent, the clinical supervisor for Sweeter’s Mobile Crisis Services out of Brunswick, said that since starting the program, she’s seen a lot of residual cooperation and communication between the two agencies. Police are connecting people with the crisis worker onsite if available and when not available, they connect individuals to the crisis service by calling Sweetser immediately.

Currently, Sweetser’s intervention specialist is with police one day and two nights a week. She has an office space in the police station and people have met with her there instead of going to the hospital.

One of the goals of crisis services is to meet with people in the least restrictive environment, said Parent. Often people feel safest in their home or a community setting, “and having this relationship with the police department has kind of afforded us the ability to do that more often.”

She added: “Historically, there has been some belief that you have to access the emergency room, and so we’re trying to let people know they can contact us first and we’ll help them decide where the best place is to access that service.”

Parent said many people don’t know where to turn. Others let the problem go on too long before they can connect to the help they need.

“We always encourage folks to call often. Call early. Call anytime. Because there’s always hope and there’s always resources,” she said.

To speak with a trained crisis clinician 24 hours a day, seven days a week in Maine, call Sweetser’s Crisis Services at 1-888-568-1112. To have a recovery-focused conversation with a peer, contact the Intentional Warm Line anytime in Maine at 1- 866-771-9276. Out of state, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800- 273-TALK.

dmoore@timesrecord.com