The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has launched a new program aiming at getting people in mental health crisis connected to the help and services they need.

  • Mental Health Unit made up of two teams
  • Each team made up of a Pinellas deputy and a mental health professional
  • Aim is decrease chances of cases involving those mental health issues escalating

Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office officials say they're seeing more criminals with a history of mental illness heading to jail. To counter that trend, PCSO has created a new "Mental Health Unit."

This unit is made of two teams. For both teams, a deputy is paired with an experienced mental health expert called a "navigator."

Teams follow-up on Baker act clients, hoping to reduce the number of Baker Acts and incarcerations, as well as decrease the chances of cases involving those with mental health problems escalating to violence.

Each team works to establish relationships with clients in a wide range of cases. It can take a few visits to establish that rapport, but once it is, the connection can be rewarding for everyone.

"It’s a lot more involved," said Deputy Keith Jackson, a member of one of the county's two teams." "We’re able to take our time."

Deputy Jackson is Crisis Intervention Team trained. His navigator, licensed mental health counselor La'Tonya Oats, has about 20 years experience in the mental health field.

Together, the two work 10-hour shifts following up with people who previously have been Baker Acted.

"This is certainly meeting the community where they are," said Oats. "At their residence, at the hospital, at a treatment facility, at a Baker act receiving facility."

Conversations with the people they visit can focus on medications, services, counseling, doctor visits and whether there’s a support system.

"It kind of varies between suicidal caller, it can be an overdose situation, it can be a parent," said Oats.

The visits can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. In between those follow-ups, the team can be dispatched to an active call.

"I find the emotions come after they understand that we’re gonna take time, we're going to take the opportunity to speak to them not just as a number but as a person,” said Deputy Jackson. “This isn’t the next call that we’re on, this is you, you have our attention, we’re gonna take our time and we’re gonna make sure that we understand what it is you feel you need and what it is exactly that we can give you."

On one occasion, the Mental Health Unit was called to what started out as a disorderly conduct case. Deputies who initially responded identified the person involved as a person in mental health crisis.

"He says he’s going to kill someone because they took his backpack," said Deputy Jackson. "He says without his medication he's starting to feel himself lose it, he says he's becoming more angry."

Deputy Jackson and Oats approached the man and talked with him for quite awhile. He was Baker acted and taken to a facility.

In time, the team will follow up.

"The best possible outcome is for someone to take the information that we give them, utilize that information and seek the help that they need," said Deputy Jackson.

"It's fulfilling when you can see that you can make a difference in somebody’s life be it a small way or a more impactful way," said Oats.

The program is funded using grant money from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Smart Policing Institute. Since the program started last Fall, 435 of the county's 813 Baker Act cases have received follow-up visits. Some of those visited are involved in multiple cases.