Thanks To A Partnership With Local Police, Area Residents Can Get The Mental Health Services They Need.
Emergency departments across the nation are flooded with patients seeking mental health services. At Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus (MMCSC), staff members are attempting to stem the tide through the hospital’s Psychiatric Emergency Screening Services (PESS). “We want to help people in crisis avoid the trauma and cost of coming to the Emergency Department for a psychiatric evaluation,” says Joe Cuffari, LPC, Assistant Vice President, Psychiatric Emergency Services at RWJBarnabas Health.
Collaborating With Law Enforcement
PESS was launched in 1989, when a state law was passed mandating that every county provide screening and treatment for people in need of psychiatric assistance. “For years, people with mental health issues were allowed to go into crisis mode, and many ended up institutionalized in psychiatric hospitals,” says Beth Meenan, a psychiatric screener for PESS. “The screening law helps prevent that.” Today, every county in New Jersey has a state-funded screening center to evaluate and treat patients in distress and provide a crisis hotline.
What makes PESS at MMCSC unique is its partnership with four local police departments (Toms River, Stafford, Manchester and Jackson). Trained psychiatric screeners go out into the community to assess residents. “No other system in New Jersey has this program,” says Cuffari. “While other centers have mobile screeners, we’ve found that it’s not as effective unless you go with police. Some people need a high level of care and won’t agree to be evaluated unless the police are there to intercede.”
Meenan works at a police station Monday through Friday. (Previously, she worked in the PESS unit at MMCSC for 24 years.) During a typical day, she receives calls from police officers who come in contact with people who need mobile outreach. “For instance, an officer might find someone who has expressed suicidal thoughts or has psychotic depression or another symptom of a mental health problem,” says Meenan. She then joins the police officer to conduct an assessment. Oftentimes, this involves meeting with the person on the street or at their home. (Currently, Meenan and other screeners wear personal protective equipment, practice social distancing and meet people outside when possible.) Sometimes the calls come from nursing homes or outpatient programs. “We’ve been all over the community,” says Meenan.
Meenan assesses a person in crisis to determine whether he or she is in need of psychiatric help. “Once we’ve completed the evaluation and determined whether a person is a danger to himself or herself or others, we can link up the person with services,” she says. In the best- case scenario, this means connecting the person to outpatient services in the community. If further in-depth psychiatric evaluation is needed, the person is transported by the police to the closest Emergency Department.
Police officers also tap Meenan’s expertise when they’re responding to a traumatic incident, such as a suicide. “They call me to come out with them to meet with family members to do a debriefing and provide support,” says Meenan.
MMCSC employs four other psychiatric screeners who work in police stations. “The police officers know that if they have any questions, they can talk to Beth or one of the other screeners,” says Cuffari.
More Accessible Treatment
If a person needs emergency care, the police bring him or her straight to the psychiatric crisis unit at MMCSC, where he or she is not only evaluated by experienced nurses and therapists but also provided with peer support. “We have former patients who volunteer their time to sit down with a new patient, share their story and explain what to expect if he or she is admitted,” says Cuffari. “We’ve found this really helps people feel more comfortable and at ease with what can be a very traumatic process.”
To give local police officers a better understanding of mental health issues, MMCSC participates in Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training. In this 40-hour, one-week course, law enforcement professionals learn about mental health screening as well as various inpatient and outpatient services. “It’s important for them to know how to respond to a person in crisis—especially if there isn’t a psychiatric screener with them,” says Cuffari, who teaches new police officers about mental health and PESS services at the Ocean County Police Academy.
Mobile screening services have become essential, says Meenan. While there are still people who don’t receive the psychiatric assistance they need until it’s too late, MMCSC helps to make mental health services accessible. Says Meenan: “We’re ensuring that more people are able to live either at home or in residential programs in the
community.”
You can learn more about Psychiatric Emergency Screening Services at Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus here.