Williamson County Sheriff’s Office Adds Mental Health Co-Responders
- Williamson County law enforcement has stepped up its mental health response in 2022.
- Alex MacNicol, a mental health professional at the Volunteer Behavioral Health Care System, is available by phone weekdays from 1:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office has launched a new joint responder program to improve the response to mental health crises in the county.
Through this program, Volunteer Behavioral Health Care System specialist Alex MacNicol will be on call to provide residents with support, resources and non-law enforcement responses.
McNicol works weekdays from 1:00 pm to 9:00 pm. According to Williamson County Sheriff Dusty Rhodes, this time of day is when mental health calls are most common. Unlike similar programs in other areas, McNicol does not ride with agents during patrols, instead being summoned to cases after law enforcement secures the area.
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“As Williamson County grows, it seems like we have someone going through a mental health or emotional crisis on a daily basis.” It’s another tool that can
The National Psychiatric Alliance found that about 21% of Americans experience some form of mental illness. So does his nearly 44% of those incarcerated in state and federal prisons.
Calls to the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office regarding mental health crises, including psychological emergencies, suicide attempts, and other mental health issues, increased from 169 in 2018 to 213 the following year.
Several law enforcement agencies in Williamson County, including the Sheriff’s Department, launched crisis intervention teams earlier this year to train police officers to better serve residents with mental health crises. did.
Lt. Chris Mobley, who helped launch the program, told Tennessean to distract residents from the criminal justice system by connecting them with resources such as NAMI Middle Tennessee, Youth Village, Volunteer Behavioral Health, Rolling Hills Hospital, and Williamson. said the goal is a medical center.
Mobley hopes that having access to mental health professionals who are not law enforcement officers will provide another way the department can achieve this goal.
This position will be funded through the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration through March 2023. Program organizers say they’ve nearly secured funding through 2025.
“We can focus on that from a mental health perspective, not necessarily from a law enforcement perspective,” Mobley said. We just put them in solitary confinement, and that’s not the right thing to do.”
Cole Villena covers Williamson County on The Tennessean, part of the USA Today Network — Tennessee. Contact Cole at cvillena@tennessean.com or 615-925-0493. Follow Cole on Twitter. @ColeVillena Even on Instagram (@CVinTennessee).
