With a vote Tuesday night, Gainesville City Council will give the Gainesville Police Department formal approval to move forward with the hiring of a staff clinician who will help officers as they respond to mental health calls in the city.
The money for the hire comes from the North Georgia Community Foundation through one of three inaugural Opportunity Grants announced last month.
Gainesville Police Chief Jay Parrish has been talking about the need for such a staff member for months, and NGCF officials heard what he was saying.
"We're looking for a licensed clinical social worker or a licensed practicing counselor...master's degree level, experts in their field," Parrish said. "We need somebody with a really big heart that has those licensing credentials from the state that will help coordinate getting the person from where they are to those resources [they need]."
Parrish said law enforcement experience would be a plus, but it's not the most vital qualification. Again, he wants someone who can counsel with a community member that is having mental issues.
"Our officers are often the first to encounter them and our officers are excellent at fixing an acute problem, but when it's a chronic problem that goes on and on, we've got to have somebody with a really big heart that can identify with these people, wants to help them and get them to the services they need to get them back on their feet," Parrish said.
The big goal, he said, is to find someone in a crisis situation, re-stabilize them in their job and in their home with their family.
The staff clinician would ride along with officers, according to Parrish, but would also manage case files of those people officers encounter on mental health calls.
The Opportunity Grant in the amount of $55,000 is the seed money for the police department's mental health program, so Parrish said he and other department officials are working now to find financing for future years.
"We're already talking with other entities that want to help [and] I hope that in the next month or so that we'll be able to go public with how those will work," Parrish said. Those discussions, if they materialize, would fund the mental health program for four years.
He also said there are federal grants available once the program is already up and running, and Gainesville may apply for some of the federal grant money when the city is eligible.
Parrish said he did research on what other police departments in the country are doing and he gained valuable information from cities such as Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Athens, Georgia, both of which have successful mental health programs. He said it won't be long before other departments are implementing similar programs.
"I do believe this is the wave of the future," Parrish said. "I think this is going to keep our officers safer, our communities safer and more than anything, create stability for somebody that needs it."
The Opportunity Grant appears on the consent agenda for the Jan. 21 Gainesville City Council meeting. When the agenda is approved, the job opening for staff clinician can be posted.
