TEWKSBURY — The Tewksbury Police Department recently welcomed a new co-response mental health clinician to the Behavioral Health Unit Police Collaborative.
In her role, Amanda Grant will respond alongside Tewksbury police to mental health emergencies and crises, and will work with individuals after crises to ensure they have access to appropriate services.
“I have family members in the policing profession, so the opportunity to collaborate with dedicated and hard-working law enforcement professionals is a privilege which I am very excited about,” Grant said.
Grant, who grew up in West Roxbury, has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UMass Boston, and a master’s degree in psychology from William James College.
Grant succeeds a former co-response clinician who recently left the unit, according to police. She will work primarily with the Tewksbury Police Department.
The Behavioral Health Unit Police Collaborative, funded by a grant from the state Department of Mental Health, provides member departments with access to a co-response clinician who can respond to active calls for service, and follow up with individuals post-crisis. The clinicians can also make referrals to community-based services, such as for non-acute levels of care and case management.
Fully embedded into each department, police said the program provides a trauma-informed, highly-trained co-response clinician for individuals experiencing mental health or substance use crisis.
Since 2016, the Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Tewksbury, and Tyngsboro police departments have worked to create a regional mental health collaborative aimed at diverting individuals with mental health and substance misuse disorders from being unnecessarily processed through the criminal justice system or through emergency rooms.
In addition to on-scene responses, clinicians are accessible 24/7 to police for mental health consultation, and available to community members for follow-ups with police.
For more about the Behavioral Health Unit, visit tewksburypolice.com/behavioral-health-unit.
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Aaron Curtis
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