By Larry Urish, contributing writer

Emphasizing student safety and welfare, Cal State Fullerton’s Counseling and Psychological Services last spring began partnering with CSUF’s Police Department to form the Mobile Crisis Team, a unit that has been implementing a new holistic safety plan to better serve students in crisis.

Consisting of a CAPS mental health clinician and a police campus safety specialist, the Mobile Crisis Team prioritizes compassionate intervention, case-specific support, follow-up care and referrals to a variety of on- and off-campus resources. This reimagined form of crisis care has been given a boost thanks to a recent $549,000 grant provided by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Working in tandem, the Police Department and CAPS have decreased the need for traditional law enforcement intervention for nonviolent incidents, lowered the number of arrests, cut costs, decreased repeat calls for service and enhanced student access to a more thorough, wider range of care for those undergoing a crisis.

The new form of police/counseling intervention involves a “tiered” safety response system, in which different levels of care are based on a given situation — everything from a serious, violent crime to a student overwhelmed about an upcoming exam.

“This holistic approach recognizes that not every call requires a uniformed police officer,” said Det. Christopher Brown of the CSUF Police Department. “It frees up our police officers to respond to, investigate and prevent crimes, and engage with community members.”

“The Mobile Crisis Team came about when the new police chief (Anthony Frisbee) realized that many of these mental health calls shouldn’t require police,” said Jaime Sheehan, director of CAPS. “They should be for licensed mental health clinicians. Now, for mental health situations, the hope is that we have a trained clinician or Mobile Crisis Team member respond instead of officers.”

Available Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., the Mobile Crisis Team is activated by contacting Counseling and Psychological Services (657-278-3040) or the police department’s 24-hour dispatch center (657-278-2515). The pairing of a CAPS mental health professional and a campus safety specialist ensures that students receive support in a safe environment.

Brown emphasized that campus safety specialists don’t wear a uniform, and they don’t carry weapons. “They provide a bubble of safety and act by requesting additional support if a situation escalates.”

Using the old response process, “The police determined if the person was in danger to himself or others, or gravely disabled,” Brown said. “If the student wouldn’t meet this criteria, the officer would hand out a pamphlet, say have a nice day and move on. Now, with the Mobile Crisis Team, clinicians specially trained for helping students in crisis can refer them to helpful resources and provide follow-up care. It’s not just one and done.”

The $549,000 grant will be paid over three years, Brown said. “This time allows us to build the tiered-response program, highlighting it to the campus community. Moving forward, hopefully, it will be included in our formal budget, and we won’t have to rely on the federal grant.”

On the subject of funding, “One way the Mobile Crisis Team reduces costs is by lowering the number of repeat calls,” Sheehan said. “It really helps if we can get students into treatment sooner and provide access to services they didn’t know about. Our goal is to follow up with treatment and provide additional resources through different agencies, versus resolving an issue for that one moment.”

“Law enforcement is expensive,” Brown said. “The Mobile Crisis Team frees up our police officers to respond to crimes. By connecting troubled students to resources that help, we’re not dealing with the same problem over and over again.”

The crisis team also lowers student fear and the perceived disgrace associated with mental health intervention. “When law enforcement responds to a mental health crisis, it may create more of a stigma,” Sheehan said. “If someone sees a police officer in a uniform, it may lead to a fear reaction. Having a mental health specialist and a campus safety officer respond can reduce worry.”

Student feedback about the new system has been positive, Sheehan said. “They’ve been very appreciative and thankful, and they believe that it will be very beneficial for future students using this service.”

“When a Mobile Crisis Team is deployed, students get great care, far better than from a regular police officer,” said Brown, who sees the tiered-response model one day being used in other CSU campuses and across the nation.

“Every position within the university is designated for student success. A key part of that is providing mental health care. The work that the Mobile Crisis Team is doing every day is helping students to be academically successful and be contributing members of society. That’s really powerful.”

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