Crisis Triage Center Will Help Reduce Mental Health Wait
by Louis Llovio and John Ramsey on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Chesterfield County is joining with the city of Richmond and Chippenham Hospital in an emergency center designed to more quickly treat mental health patients.
The Crisis Triage Center brings together law enforcement, medical, psychiatric and emergency mental health services in a single location. That’s expected to greatly reduce the time it takes to get patients who are involuntarily committed the help they need and reduce the time officers are held up waiting alongside them.
“They’re all working together to get medical clearance at the same time we’re doing pre-screening and we’re trying to get them a bed, and they’re in custody of a police officer the whole time,” said Debbie Burcham, director of Chesterfield County’s Department of Mental Health Support Services.
The center opened Oct. 1 at Chippenham Hospital thanks to a $281,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. It stays open seven days a week from 2 p.m. to midnight, when demand for mental health services is highest.
Without a Crisis Triage Center, officers who encountered people with mental health needs had to take them first to be screened by a mental health professional. That could take four to six hours. If the patients needed a bed in an inpatient setting, officers then had to escort them to an emergency room to be medically cleared. That could add several more hours — up to 24 in some cases — to the process.
Now, officers can drop people off at the Crisis Triage Center, where an officer on duty takes custody of them and psychiatrists and doctors work on screening and medically clearing them in one spot.
“The officer turns them over, and they get out on the road,” often in half an hour or less, Burcham said.
The center’s opening coincides with an effort to have more officers trained to de-escalate situations involving people with mental health problems.
Burcham said the center has a calming effect on people who are having a mental health problem because it reduces the number of times they have to be transported by officers and because everyone in the building is trained to deal with people having psychiatric problems. It also keeps them out of a jail cell, where too often such people end up, she said.
“It’s a wonderful first step, but it’s a first step,” said Maurice Morgan, CEO and program director of South Richmond-based New Pathways, who has advocated for better communication among mental health providers. “That’s closing the gap. Usually what happens is these guys go to jail and don’t get the help they need.”
Morgan said getting people the help they need rather than sending them to jail makes a big difference in their care, but he still worries about what happens to them once they are released.
Too many times those with mental health issues are left to fend for themselves after they’ve gotten initial treatment or they’ve been stabilized, he said. What’s needed is a better system for making sure someone who is having issues gets follow-up care, is seeing a doctor and is taking needed medications.
“The key to it is making sure that they are linked up with agencies that can give the care after the triage center … that can do the follow-up,” Morgan said. “That’s when things fall apart.”
The Crisis Triage Center brings together law enforcement, medical, psychiatric and emergency mental health services in a single location. That’s expected to greatly reduce the time it takes to get patients who are involuntarily committed the help they need and reduce the time officers are held up waiting alongside them.
“They’re all working together to get medical clearance at the same time we’re doing pre-screening and we’re trying to get them a bed, and they’re in custody of a police officer the whole time,” said Debbie Burcham, director of Chesterfield County’s Department of Mental Health Support Services.
The center opened Oct. 1 at Chippenham Hospital thanks to a $281,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. It stays open seven days a week from 2 p.m. to midnight, when demand for mental health services is highest.
Without a Crisis Triage Center, officers who encountered people with mental health needs had to take them first to be screened by a mental health professional. That could take four to six hours. If the patients needed a bed in an inpatient setting, officers then had to escort them to an emergency room to be medically cleared. That could add several more hours — up to 24 in some cases — to the process.
Now, officers can drop people off at the Crisis Triage Center, where an officer on duty takes custody of them and psychiatrists and doctors work on screening and medically clearing them in one spot.
“The officer turns them over, and they get out on the road,” often in half an hour or less, Burcham said.
The center’s opening coincides with an effort to have more officers trained to de-escalate situations involving people with mental health problems.
Burcham said the center has a calming effect on people who are having a mental health problem because it reduces the number of times they have to be transported by officers and because everyone in the building is trained to deal with people having psychiatric problems. It also keeps them out of a jail cell, where too often such people end up, she said.
“It’s a wonderful first step, but it’s a first step,” said Maurice Morgan, CEO and program director of South Richmond-based New Pathways, who has advocated for better communication among mental health providers. “That’s closing the gap. Usually what happens is these guys go to jail and don’t get the help they need.”
Morgan said getting people the help they need rather than sending them to jail makes a big difference in their care, but he still worries about what happens to them once they are released.
Too many times those with mental health issues are left to fend for themselves after they’ve gotten initial treatment or they’ve been stabilized, he said. What’s needed is a better system for making sure someone who is having issues gets follow-up care, is seeing a doctor and is taking needed medications.
“The key to it is making sure that they are linked up with agencies that can give the care after the triage center … that can do the follow-up,” Morgan said. “That’s when things fall apart.”
