MELBOURNE, Fla. – Many Central Florida law enforcement agencies have partnered with mental health counselors to better respond to emergency calls with a mental health component but not in Brevard County — until last year.
The Melbourne Police Department was the first to do so in Brevard. And over the past year and a half, 911 calls in the city have dropped while calls for counselors have jumped.
Each time a 911 call comes in, Melbourne police respond to it the same way with lights and sirens and any and all resources, including a mental health clinician.
But ever since the department added the Mobile Crisis Co-responder Team (MRT), the emergency calls don’t always end the same way.
Licensed therapist Abby Pease manages the MRT for the Melbourne Police Department, a team of five on-call five days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The MRT co-responded with officers 60 times in October, more times than any other month since MRT came into existence in Melbourne.
“I think we see mental health it’s not going away,” Pease said. “I think the more people learn about a program, the more comfort the officers have in calling us. And if it’s appropriate, we can clear PD from the call which allows them to do law enforcement. It allows them to clear the call quicker and put these cases of people who may be experiencing issues or having a tough time in the hands of mental health train clinicians.”
Pease said after every 911 call, therapists follow up with every patient 24 hours later to see if they need more help. MRT Care Coordinators then take over to make sure the patient gets medication and/or gets to appointments if needed.
The intention is the next time patients need help, they call the MRT instead of 911.
Melbourne Police Department Community Services Sgt. Ben Slover admitted the MRT was long overdue in Brevard County.
“Absolutely,” Slover said. “Brevard County, law enforcement in general, needs help dealing with mental health issues because we’re not trained for that.”
Historically, crisis response teams at police departments have gotten results across Central Florida bringing much-needed help and relief, even long-term, to those in crisis plus reducing their reliance on law enforcement and the 911 call center. New counselor-deputy team called out almost 1,500 times since January.
“So because we’re handling a lot of the mental health cases and doing as I mentioned a lot of good preventative work, we have seen our detectives and law enforcement officers be able to prosecute crime,” Pease said. “And not be as stuck in mental health cases.”
A $1.2 million state grant funds the MRT at Melbourne Police Department over three years.
Cocoa Police Department is the next Brevard County law enforcement agency to add a Mobile Crisis Response Team. Others are in the works.
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