Theresa Russell, director of criminal justice and outreach services for the sheriff’s office, said the team has senior case managers who follow up with people involved in crisis calls.
“They basically hold our residents' hands through processes of linking and referring them to appropriate community resources,” she said.
Last year, the CIT helped 398 residents in Harrison, Jefferson and Washington townships.
Of those cases, 99% avoided incarceration.
“Our program design is aimed to reduce the number of repeat mental health crisis calls for service by making sure follow-up, linkage and referrals are made for those individuals in need, and ultimately to reduce the jail admissions for those more often than not, arrested for offenses secondary to their mental health problems,” said Sheriff Rob Streck.
In about 88% of the calls for service last year people were referred to community behavioral health programming.
Some people may already be a client somewhere and not have been scheduled to see a mental health professional or need their medications reassessed, Russell said.
“More often than not, they’re not linked to anybody,” she said. “So that’s usually the biggest referral — getting them linked to somebody for treatment services."
The CIT also does referrals for primary care physicians and helps connect people with programs to meet their basic needs, such as food banks, employment and family support services.
Last year, 31.4% of people served by the CIT were linked with new or sustained in established community treatment programs and 55% were connected to hospitals, either via emergency or voluntary admissions.
Fifteen percent of the people the CIT served were juveniles.
That’s a slight increase from the average of 12% and one of the things Russell plans to focus on this year.
“My plan is to make sure that we’re providing extra supports to the group homes and school systems that are in those districts,” she said.
Russell met with co-responders recently and encouraged them to check in at group homes and with juveniles they’ve referred to services to see how things are going.
The CIT is also seeing an increase in calls from older adults.
In 2023, the CIT saw 43 people aged 62 and older in Washington and Jefferson townships. Last year that increased to 66 people.
Russell said the calls tend to be related to dementia.
“They have physical conditions and they’re struggling to live independently,” she said. “(It’s) calls for assistance with medics and law enforcement just because they need their medications, need reevaluated or they’re out of medications, or again with dementia, we’re having a lot of issues with that.”
The CIT already works with Adult Protective Services and the Area Agency on Aging, but Russell said she’s looking at additional services and programs to help older adults.
In Dayton, the city’s Mediation Response Unit responded to 2,770 calls and helped more than 4,500 people last year.
The team addressed 86% of cases on the spot, said Michelle Zaremba, division manager for the City of Dayton’s Planning, Neighborhoods and Development.
The MRU is an alternative-response team that handles non-emergency, non-violent 911 calls, she said. Unlike Montgomery County’s CIT, the MRU does not handle mental health calls.
“Our team steps in when police presence isn’t necessary, assisting with disputes, providing support and connecting individuals to valuable community resources,” Zaremba explained.
They handle approximately 40% of calls about neighbor trouble in Dayton. The MRU also receives a daily log of neighbor trouble calls and follows up on cases that took place outside of the team’s service hours.
Last year, 1.2% of cases needed police assistance and none were due to responder safety.
“When police were involved, it was typically for individuals requesting a police report or needing trespass enforcement—both outside MRU’s scope," Zaremba said.
The MRU also completed 4,323 follow-up activities last year.
The top calls for services are peace officer complaints, juvenile and neighbor and noise.
Like the CIT, the MRU is also seeing more calls related to juveniles.
“We have observed an increase in the number of youth and families scheduling mediation sessions following the initial call for service,” Zaremba said. “This approach allows us to provide ongoing support that extends beyond the initial response.”
The team is also seeing an increase in direct calls.
“This shift is a key objective of the program, as it enables us to offer tailored responses to conflicts, connect individuals with valuable resources and provide necessary follow-up support,” she said.
The MRU also connected people in 338 cases to food resources, housing support, bus passes and social services, but Zaremba noted the number is likely low because the team didn’t start tracking it until halfway through 2024.
An assessment of the MRU’s impact is being done this year to provide data insights into the team’s effects. Zaremba said the final report is expected to be ready by the summer.
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