Delaware Police Establish Behavioral Health Unit
New Castle County Police established a new behavioral health unit funded by more than $2 million in federal and state grant money to address substance use disorder and mental health crises. The unit combines two existing programs: the Hero Help program, which allows officers to divert people with substance use disorder into treatment rather than filing criminal charges; and a mental health crisis response team pairing a trained clinician with an officer. Police Chief Vaughn Bond stated the goal is to “save lives, change lives” and emphasized the grant money is “for those individuals who are going through trying times.”
According to Josh Thomas, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Delaware chapter, the criminal justice system has historically served as the default mental illness and addiction treatment system, often preventing people from receiving necessary treatment. New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer noted that “simply arresting and incarcerating someone with a substance abuse addiction disorder, someone with a mental health issue, is often not the best path.” The Hero Help program allows officers who divert someone into treatment to forego filing drug-related charges if the person completes the program.
The new federal and state funding will support additional staff, a second mental health response team, and a child victim’s advocate to help children affected by mental health issues or addiction in their homes. The Council of State Governments Justice Center reported that “police departments are increasingly seeking help from the behavioral health system” and emphasized the importance of ensuring mental health services provide help beyond immediate crisis stabilization, including follow-up and longer-term support—a focus of the new unit’s design. Meyer stated the expanded capacity aims to “dramatically multiply the hundreds and hundreds of police cases we’ve had just in the past year to affect thousands of police incidents across this county in a positive way.”
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://whyy.org/articles/del-police-add-behavioral-health-unit-to-answer-addiction-mental-health-needs/