New mental health liaison aids Watsonville police

May 22--WATSONVILLE -- A new mental health liaison has been working with Watsonville police in recent months to help more residents connect with mental health services and steer clear of problems with the law.

Mental health liaison Reina Valencia has worked with Watsonville police master officer Angel Calderon since January on what they call the CARE unit, which stands for Crisis Assessment Response and Engagement. The pair works full time and responds to about two to five calls for service each day that have to do with mental health.

The pilot program follows similar collaborations of Santa Cruz County Behavioral Health with Santa Cruz police and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office.

Sometimes a Watsonville patrol officer responds to a report of a person with a mental health problem and calls Valencia and Calderon for help. Other times, the pair is dispatched directly to a home or other location from the initial 911 call.

Wednesday morning, for instance, a Watsonville officer responded to a home where a person was having a mental health crisis. The officer called Valencia and Calderon to the home. They helped to defuse the situation and connect them to mental health services.

"We've seen all kinds of calls, from people suffering from schizophrenia to people with substance abuse problems to people with both," Calderon said. "It's nice for the officers because it frees them up for patrol. We could be out there for hours talking to the family."

Another value to the program is that Calderon and Valencia can follow up with the person or the person's family days after the call. They can guide them to mental health services such as psychotherapy and psychiatry to try to treat the problem when it's not a crisis.

Valencia and Calderon said they aim to build people's trust and guide them to places such as Santa Cruz County Behavioral Health Division and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Santa Cruz County, also known as NAMI. It has support groups for families and many other services.

"We get a lot of calls from family members not knowing how to respond to a person with a mental health issue," Valencia said.

BUILDING TRUST

Valencia, who is from Watsonville, holds a master's degree in social work from San Jose State. She also speaks Spanish and English. She says that families are sometimes more comfortable talking with her about mental health problems rather than a uniformed police officer. Some mental health patients' experiences with police involve taking them to jail or the county's Psychiatric Health Facility, possibly against their will.

The mental health pilot program in Watsonville is a change from traditional approach of Santa Cruz County law enforcement. Officers typically assess a person for a "5150" criteria to see if the person should be taken to the Psychiatric Health Facility on Soquel Avenue in Santa Cruz for more evaluation and treatment.

The state criteria essentially judges whether a person is a danger to himself or others or is gravely disabled with a psychiatric disorder. If a person fits the criteria, an officer can take him to the facility, formerly known as the Behavioral Health Unit.

Valencia and Calderon can help with those 5150 evaluations, but they also can provide a deeper mental health history of the person.

Some of the biggest challenges are dealing with adults who don't want mental health services, Valencia said. But they can still get in touch with the person's friends and family so those people can guide them in a positive direction.

Valencia and Calderon also have encountered homeless people with mental health problems in city parks and sometimes on the Pajaro River levee. Those people often can benefit from programs with the Salvation Army, homeless shelters and Medi-Cal, a state health program for low-income adults that now includes some mental health services, police said.

PARTICIPANTS

Watsonville police in recent years also have responded to people with mental health problems and low income at large apartment buildings such as the Resetar Residential Hotel at 15 W. Lake Ave. and the Wall Street Inn at 30 W. Beach St. Some tenants are part of recent efforts to house the homeless. Some are military veterans and some have mental health diagnoses, authorities have said.

Rather than have a patrol officer with no special mental health training respond to those calls, Valencia and Calderon now can field some of them and offer more specialized service.

Some people with mental health diagnoses don't want help, and Valencia and Calderon said those cases can be some of the most difficult. Valencia said fewer than half of the people they contact don't want help.

"I think the main thing is building trust," Calderon said. Sometimes the process of building trust can take two to five visits.

Jasmine Najera, behavioral health program manager for the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency, said she is compiling how many calls Valencia and Calderon have handled this year.

Najera, who is Valencia's boss, said she eventually hopes to have a mental health specialist at Capitola and Scotts Valley police, the two law enforcement agencies left in the county without one.

The Watsonville pilot program is funded through June 2017, Najera said. The Pajaro Valley Health Trust contributes $12,000 and Santa Cruz County and the city of Watsonville pay $21,500 each for a total of $55,000 annually, according to county documents.

"Hopefully the community will see this as an impactful program," Najera said.

How to seek help

National Alliance on Mental Illness Santa Cruz County

What: Classes on navigating the mental health system, coping and support skills.

Information: Namiscc.org, 831-427-8020.

Santa Cruz County Suicide Prevention Hotline

Contact: Fsa-cc.org/suicide-prevention-service, 831-458-5300.

Santa Cruz County Behavioral Health

What: Crisis support for adults offers evaluations for hospitalizations for adults in psychiatric crisis and not in immediate danger.

Information: SantaCruzHealth.org 831-454-4170 or after hours 800-952-2335. Call 831-600-2800 for crisis evaluation for youths.

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