Greenfield Police Department Receives Two Grants for Behavioral-health Services

GREENFIELD — The Greenfield Police Department is expanding its behavioral-health services thanks to two grants from Massachusetts Jail Diversion programs. A $100,000 Crisis Intervention Team Grant and a $200,000 Co-response Grant will support the department’s emphasis on compassionate care in responding to mental-health and addiction-related emergencies.

The Greenfield Police Department has received the Crisis Intervention Team Grant annually for nearly a decade. Each funding round helps fortify the city’s Crisis Intervention Team, a community group comprised of local mental-health and addiction specialists working in partnership with the Greenfield Police Department. Police officers are also instructed thoroughly in crisis intervention through a national training program.

“Crisis intervention teams play a critical role in behavioral-health situations,” Deputy Chief William Gordon said. “During these responses, the team provides effective crisis response that is least intrusive to people’s lives. This approach helps reduce stigma, improves crisis response, and redirects people in crisis from law enforcement to mental-health and addiction specialists, ultimately decreasing the criminal justice system’s further involvement in behavioral-health matters.”

The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health awarded the $200,000 Co-response Grant, which the Greenfield Police Department also received last year. The funding will allow the department to add a second full-time clinician to its staff. The clinicians are employed by Clinical & Support Options. As part of their partnership with the Police Department, the clinicians ride alongside police officers and provide guidance during behavioral-health calls.