East Tennessee Mental Health Workgroup
My first proposal will be called East TN Mental Health Work Group. The participants recommended for my proposal will be director-level or higher private providers as well as law enforcement (FBI, Homeland Security, and local CIT law enforcement) to be able to address macro level change in our community. This proposal’s goal will be to implement a combination of a policy change as well as a short-term intervention for Parkridge Valley.
What social issue has been addressed and why?
The first project proposal is filling the gap of having East TN’s community partners and Law enforcement together collaborating to provide quality care to individuals who have mental health needs. While there are Mental Health Work Groups in West and Middle TN, there is not one in East TN. Parkridge Valley will be a leading agency to help the Chattanooga mental health community. Parkridge has assisted with teaching law enforcement how to interact and to look for when responding to mental health calls. There has been a lapse recently and lack of communication and education between these two actors. This project proposal will hopefully bridge that gap.
The mental health community will benefit the most by the first project proposal. This issue is moderately significant as there are meetings in the urban areas however they are not incorporating the rural areas that are also dealing with the same issues and barriers. According to Marcus & Stergiopoulos (2022), law enforcement are typically the first responders to mental health crisis in the community. There is a lack of knowledge by law enforcement on how to best address mental health crisis as well as a need for a model that does not involve the police at all (Marcus & Stergiopoulus, 2022).
I have initiated both projects so far with the assistance of Parkridge Valley’s community liaison Kristen Smith, Supervisor Justin F., and Supervisor Latricia, and MSW Field Supervisor Caitlyn Momom as well as other individuals that I have professional relationships with at DCS. Unfortunately due to some systemic barriers at my current employment, my special project implementation involving the East TN MH workgroup was changed to a proposal for Parkridge Valley.
What interventions have been designed?
Our mission on the first project will be to work collaboratively with law enforcement to deliver quality services to individuals with mental health needs in our local community. The goal will be to have bimonthly meetings discussing any barriers such as lack of communication, misunderstandings, and lack of education on certain issues that arise during the time period in between meetings. Based on literature review, studies have shown that having mental health professionals involved with law enforcement making response and/or training them on how to deal with individuals having a mental health episode, can make interactions less volatile and get the individual connected to the appropriate resources.
The design will succeed because it provides a safe space for individuals that want to serve the community to discuss each other’s roles and how each role can help the mental health community. While law enforcement is more punitive and mental health is more rehabilitative, they can work together to ensure that systemic issues in the criminal justice system are being addressed and individual suffering from mental health problems are receiving the appropriate care and treatment.
Intervention
Unfortunately due to some systemic barriers, there was not an intervention that was able to be completed. Information on the work group proposal was provided to Parkridge Valley leadership for possible implementation.
Review of Literature
MH Crisis Intervention
Studies have shown that law enforcement (LE) responding to mental health crisis can have a dramatic impact on those individuals. This can be mitigated with training and having collaborative relationships with mental health providers in their communities who can respond or assist LE with these types of calls.
What were some results achieved?
For my proposal, I have created a pre and post evaluation of how effective they feel the East TN Mental Health Work Group would be when collaborating and providing quality services to the community. I would also evaluate the delivery of the intervention through a google form. I created evaluations with the links below. I also provided a template of a MOU Template 2024 for when the workgroup is implemented so any issues of confidentiality can be addressed.
Pre – Test for East TN MH Workgroup Proposal
Post – Test for East TN MH Workgroup Proposal
Evaluation of East TN MH Workgroup Meeting
The goal would be for the group members to feel a sense of community and positive collaboration with their community partners in helping individuals with mental health needs.
Theoretical Perspectives
Both interventions were guided by the Social Learning Theory, which states people learn from observing others’ behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes. This theory was crucial in understanding how mental health administration might adopt and adhere to new policies through education and modeling appropriate behaviors. By aligning the intervention with this theoretical framework, it was anticipated that increased awareness and training would lead to better adherence to the proposed policy changes within and outside the organization. The theoretical foundation for both of my special projects is the social learning theory. In its basic form, the social learning theory states that people can learn new information simply by watching others (Psychology Today, 2024). The reason for choosing this theoretical perspective for both of my project’s framework is because the East TN Mental Health Workgroup would bring collaboration between Law Enforcement and Mental Health providers in to an environment where we can learn from each other.
Limitations
Some limitations for both projects are time and financial resources. I am only at my advanced practicum until October 2024. For the project proposal, some limitations will be administration approval as well as time and financial resources. There was also the limitation of my current job instilling a systemic barrier to not have the East TN Mental Health group implemented as there were more localized meetings they did not want to update or change.
Conclusions
The main conclusions for my first project is to propose a collaborative workgroup on how law enforcement responds to mental health crises as well as have mental health providers understand law enforcement limitations.
Results
I presented the proposal of the East TN Mental Health Workgroup to Parkridge Valley leadership. They were appreciative of the information and reported they would provide this to their senior leadership for possible implementation.
References
Coggins, M. H., Pynchon, M. R., Coggins, M. H., & Pynchon, M. R. (1998). Mental health consultant to law enforcement: Secret Service development of a Mental Health Liaison Program. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 16(4), 407–422. https://doi-org.ezproxy.southern.edu/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0798(199823)16:4<407::AID-BSL318>3.0.CO;2-W
Marcus, N., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2022). Re‐examining mental health crisis intervention: A rapid review comparing outcomes across police, co‐responder and non‐police models. Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(5), 1665–1679. https://doi-org.ezproxy.southern.edu/10.1111/hsc.13731
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/social-learning-theory
“Tennessee police, MH professionals pair to support community.” Mental Health Weekly, vol.
28, no. 19, 14 May 2018, pp. 5+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A542801647/AONE?u=tel_a_sau&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=afb700d0. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.
Watson, A. C., & Fulambarker, A. J. (2012). The Crisis Intervention Team Model of Police
Response to Mental Health Crises: A Primer for Mental Health Practitioners. Best Practice in Mental Health, 8(2), 71–81.
Weine, S., Kohrt, B. A., Collins, P. Y., Cooper, J., Lewis-Fernandez, R., Okpaku, S., & Wainberg, M. L. (2020). Justice for George Floyd and a reckoning for global mental health. Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health, 7, 1–5. https://doi-org.ezproxy.southern.edu/10.1017/gmh.2020.17
https://www.inhersight.com/blog/female-friendly-companies/6-companies-self-care-initiatives-we-can-get-behin
Competencies
Competency 1: Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior.
For both of my special projects, I will be presenting this information to other professionals. I will demonstrate ethical behavior by presenting accurate information from qualified and empirical sources. I will demonstrate professional behavior through my oral and written skills during the presentation as well as dressing in business casual attire.
Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice.
My projects will advance human rights by supporting mental health professionals long-term when working with clients in mental health crisis. These projects will promote social, economic, and racial justice for clients by helping the professionals that help them. These projects will promote social justice by connecting mental health agencies with resources as well as collaboration between law enforcement agencies and mental health providers.
Competency 3: Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice.
These projects engage anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion in practice due to the vastness of the mental health community in our area. This project implementation would have inclusive language and bring together different factions of the individuals that encounter the mental health community on a daily basis.
Competency 4: Engage in practice-informed research and research-informed practice.
This project includes empirical research on effective collaboration between Mental Health providers and law enforcement. The evidence found through this research will provide frameworks for developing new practices. Research would be conducted using pre and post-testing of participants as well as evaluations of the material disseminated.
Competency 5: Engage in policy practice.
The East TN Mental Health workgroup project will provide a framework for possible new organizational policies within the community. I plan on advocating for the implementation of these projects to support a better working environment for inside and outside stakeholders.
Competency 6: Engage with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
At the onset of my practicum, I met with Parkridge Valley leadership to determine what the needs and wants of the organization are within the community. It was brought to my attention that collaboration between Parkridge Valley, other MH agencies, and LE agencies would be beneficial to serving the mental health community in the greater Chattanooga area.
Competency 7: Assess with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
For my projects, I was able to assess the needs of Parkridge Valley by talking with staff and leadership.
Competency 8: Intervene with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
I would utilize interventions by providing participants with pre & post tests and evaluations. There were also pre & post tests, and evaluations created for when Parkridge Valley implements the East TN MH Workgroup proposal.
Competency 9: Evaluate individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
I would evaluate the outcomes of the pre & post test and evaluations to determine the effectiveness of the project after implementation.