Joliet Police Department plans mental health role

The Joliet Police Department has received a federal grant to develop a program for mental health assistance.

The police department would partner with other local agencies to provide mental health services in those cases where police are called to situations where no crimes are committed but there is an apparent need for help.

In some cases, police are called repetitively to address situations that really require social workers, said Maria Hernandez Green, special projects coordinator for the Joliet Police Department.

“These people are obviously struggling,” Hernandez Green said. “I know our officers feel frustrated. They ask, ‘What can I do about it?’”

The City Council still must authorize acceptance of the $477,000 Connect and Protect Grant, which is one of 36 such grants being awarded nationwide by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance.

The program would be developed over the next year before being put into action.

“BJA (Bureau of Justice Assistance) wants a thoughtfully implemented program,” Hernandez Green said. “It’s one of the requirements that you have to use that year for planning.”

She described the project as “a cooperative effort between several different organizations”

Others involved would be Cornerstone Services, the University of St. Francis and the Will County Health Department.

Cornerstone Services would hire social workers who would supervise master’s degree-level interns at the University of St. Francis.

They would be brought into situations that have not risen to the level of a crisis but involve “people that are persistently enduring mental health issues,” Hernandez Green said during a presentation to the City Council on Tuesday. “Police are constantly going over there, and there is no resolution.”

The Will County Health Department would provide police officers with training in deescalation tactics and responding to specific populations, as well as provide relevant training for dispatchers.

Crisis intervention training also would be provided to police who volunteer for the 40-hour program.

The long-term goal is to develop a mental-health response program that can be sustained once the grant money runs out, Hernandez Green said.

The council is likely to vote on the grant at its Jan. 18 meeting.

Council member Jan Quillman, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, told the council that the committee reviewed the grant at its meeting on Tuesday.

Quillman emphasized that only 36 Connect and Protect Grants have been provided nationwide and called the award to Joliet “a coup for Maria [who developed the grant proposal], the police department, and the city of Joliet.”