https://www.yahoo.com/news/law-enforcem ... 00564.html
As law enforcement begins to enlist social workers for crisis situations, police see positives, but training needed
Deanna Weniger, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Nov. 26—Hector Matascastillo has a chip in his front tooth that serves as a reminder of where he was nearly two decades ago — suicidal and desperate for help.
During a January blizzard in 2004, Matascastillo, an Army Ranger veteran, awoke from a dissociative flashback to find himself sitting in the snow on his front step, facing a line of Lakeville police officers with guns drawn, pointed at him.
Through the haze of post-traumatic stress disorder, he thought they were enemy combatants. He credits the officers for not firing at him as he struggled to lay down his own unloaded weapons. He chipped his tooth during that time practicing his own suicide.
Fast forward 17 years.
In September, Matascastillo, now a psychotherapist, was on the other side this time. He was standing with Dakota County South Metro SWAT officers in a stairwell in a West St. Paul apartment complex facing a suicidal man with a knife, talking to him about all the reasons he should choose life.
The man surrendered after three hours, and the incident serves as a positive example of what can happen when police and social workers team up. Departments treading this mostly uncharted territory have found training for embedding social workers to be scarce and have taken to handcrafting programs to meet their needs.
"There isn't a formal training for social workers being embedded," Matascastillo said. "It's been kind of a mess, actually. My fear is that eventually social workers are going to get themselves into a jam that they can't get out of."
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In Ramsey County, plans for law enforcement to partner with social workers were in motion nearly five years before the murder of George Floyd pushed the topic to the headlines.
"Between 2006 and 2015, calls for mental-health-related incidents doubled," said Sgt. Justin Tiffany with the St. Paul Police Department. "We knew that there was going to need to be a response on the law enforcement side as to how do we best mitigate some of those calls and connect them with appropriate services."
St. Paul police have three embedded social workers in their Community Outreach and Stabilization program.
The Maplewood Police Department began putting together a mental health outreach team in 2018 which partnered specially trained officers with community paramedics. As they began to do their work, they found that an embedded social worker was needed. This month they hired a second one.
Civil unrest and the COVID pandemic exacerbated mental instability for many. Matascastillo said the public's issues are affecting first responders and therapists.
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In the last quarter, Maplewood police dealt with 200 people who were experiencing some sort of crisis. Of those, 117 were mental health related, 54 were substance abuse, 18 were medical, 13 were self-care or vulnerability issues, 11 were housing and nine were relationship-based contacts.
In the last three years St. Paul police have seen more than 1,400 referrals to community services and mental health resources. Within the last six months, the department launched a recovery access program which connects people with chemical health issues. That program has helped 60 people so far.
"Having an embedded social worker partnering with public safety, we are able to address and solve so many community issues and needs that we've never been able to do before," Dugas said. "The positives have been overwhelming."
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But what about the calls in which the person is armed and threatening to harm others?
Matascastillo said that's where policymakers need to understand that while police officers may not all have crisis negotiating skills, social workers don't usually have tactical skills.
For Matascastillo, when he was standing in the stairwell last September talking to the man armed with a knife, he was not standing there alone. He was flanked by shielded SWAT team officers. SWAT was there to make sure Matascastillo didn't get hurt and to intervene if necessary. He said he was in awe watching the officers work.
"Those guys are amazing," he said. "I really respect them."
Maplewood has taken precautions to protect their social workers...........
Hennepin County and the Mpls. Police department had a programs like these. C.O.P.E. i think it was called. Funding for it was cut shortly after Floyds death.
I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat. [Will Rogers]