Williamson County’s Mobile Outreach Team has chosen to use JSA Health for acute psychiatric evaluations for patients screened in Williamson County. MOT is a unique program described on their website as below:
Williamson County Mental Health Response Team has been selected as the 2009 Exemplary Program of the Year by the Texas Corrections Association. The award was presented during the TCA Mid Winter conference in Austin.
TCA President Dee Wilson congratulated Williamson County, “We are excited to honor this outstanding mental health program in Williamson County. The Williamson County mental Health Response Team is truly an exemplary effort and a good example for others to model.”
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley accepted the award. Also in attendance were Sheriff James Wilson; Annie Burwell, director of the Mobile Outreach Team; Kathy Grimes, chair of the Williamson County Mental Health Task Force; Andrea Richardson, executive director of Bluebonnet Trails MHMR Center.
In response to a statewide crisis in the mental health system, the Commissioners Court established the Williamson County Mental Health Task Force in 2003 to identify gaps in services that were affecting residents locally. The task force is comprised of dedicated professionals from the fields of mental health, social service, law enforcement, justice and healthcare meet monthly to collaborate and attempt to avoid duplication of valuable limited resources. Although the task force is strictly advisory in nature, since its creation many improvements to the county’s mental health system have been implemented, including the creation of the Mobile Outreach Team (MOT); the Sheriff’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); a successful jail diversion program; an expansion of Lone Star Circle of Care’s mental health department; and a state grant award to the local mental health authority, Bluebonnet Trails MHMR, for a local crisis respite center. In addition, Williamson County was one of eight counties selected statewide to participate in a five-year Mental Health Transformation Grant which allowed the development of an electronic mental health records system to improve service to the mentally ill and the safety of emergency responders.
The Williamson County Mental Health Response Team is comprised of the MOT, the CIT and the Bluebonnet Trails MHMR. MOT was established in September 2004 to serve the growing mental health needs of the county. The team currently is comprised of six mental health specialists and one unit director. The MOT often works in tandem with the CIT.
In November 2005, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office was tasked with the responsibility of crisis intervention for psychiatric emergencies throughout the county, and the CIT was created. The unit, comprised of ten specialize mental health officers and one lieutenant has responded to 3,279 calls so far in 2009.
Together, the mental health response team has diverted hundreds of people from the criminal justice system resulting in a savings of more than $4.9 million to Williamson County since the teams were created. In addition, calls to Emergency Medical Services (EMS) have been diverted leaving EMS available to respond to medical emergencies and the number of people taken to state mental hospitals has been significantly reduced.
The effectiveness of the mental health response team is due to their professionalism, expertise and dedication. The progressive team approach in dealing with mental health has been used as a model in many counties.
The Texas Corrections Association is an organization of more than 800 corrections professionals across Texas. The Exemplary Program is selected annually from a number of outstanding and innovative programs in Texas.
