ROWLEY — The Chiefs of the Rowley, Boxford, Georgetown, Groveland, and Newbury Police Departments are pleased to announce that the first round of behavioral health training in accordance with the five departments’ newly funded Component Jail Diversion Program was a success.
Rowley, Boxford, Georgetown, Groveland, and Newbury Police were awarded funding through the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health/Jail Arrest Diversion Grant Program to hire a Jail Diversion Clinician to work collectively with each of the five police departments and provide increased behavioral health training to members of each of the five partner agencies.
The first round of 22 trainees from the five partner agencies successfully completed training on Tuesday, Nov. 22 and are now certified in Mental Health First Aid.
This critical training includes: overviews of common mental health and substance use disorders; how to recognize common risk factors and warning signs; crisis diffusion and follow-up tactics; affirming and reassurance tactics; and how to encourage appropriate help.
Training is being utilized to: increase citizen and officer safety; increase the services available to community members; decrease unnecessary arrests; decrease undue stress on the emergency services system; and successfully divert behavioral health patients to treatment or connection to services as needed.
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