HILLSBORO, Ore. — The Washington County Sheriff's Office is expanding a program to help people dealing with mental crises by getting more police departments involved.
The sheriff's office has had its Mental Health Response Team (MHRT) out on patrol for 11 years. This includes a deputy and a mental health clinician paired together in a patrol car.
MHRT responds to calls that may have a mental health or crisis component. Right now it only consists of law enforcement members from the Washington County Sheriff's Office and the Sherwood Police Department. The plan is to expand this to add officers from the Hillsboro, Beaverton, King City, Tigard and Tualatin police departments.
"[They] can be able to help with any call of service no matter the jurisdiction it is," said Danny DiPietro, communications sergeant for the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
The goal of the MHRT is to connect people with needed treatment services rather than potentially taking them to jail or a nearby hospital.
"It's really amazing to see the rapport that some people will gain with a deputy in uniform or maybe a rapport with a clinician," said DiPietro. "So there are multiple avenues on getting rapport with the individual or trying to get them help."
Last year the MHRT responded to 2,280 calls for service. The team also follows up with people to make sure they are connected to the right services for help.