LYNCHBURG, Va. – A collaboration aimed at addressing the mental health crisis in the Lynchburg community.
The Co-Responder Program allows Lynchburg police and Horizon Behavioral Health to respond to the growing need for mental health support.
“Hopefully that helps lower the number of folks we have to take into custody under what’s called emergency care order, emergency custody order, something that they’re involuntarily taken into custody under civil commitment. Our goal is to keep folks here in the community get the services and treatment they need here in the community,” Lynchburg Police Chief Ryan Zuidema said.
The Co-Responder Program partners a Crisis Intervention Trained Police Officer with a Horizon Crisis Intervention Specialist. The two will drive together and will respond to behavioral health calls throughout the Hill City.
“One of the main benefits for the program is it’s going to bring the crisis intervention specialist to the individual that is experiencing the crisis in the community rather than trying to get that individual to go to the crisis specialist,” AJ Harold, Clinical Director at Horizon Behavioral Health said.
Giving people who experience mental health crises the services they need to stay safe within the community.
“We’ve seen a steady increase over the last 5 to 6 years, of occurrences with mental health crises in our community. Last year alone we spent the equivalent of almost 9 full-time police officers just handling mental health calls,” Zuidema said.
Chief Zuidema said the goal is to kickstart this program within the next few months.