Collin County sheriff's deputies would pair with LifePath Systems clinicians on mental health crisis calls under an agreement on the Commissioners Court's consent agenda Monday, Oct. 19.
The memorandum of understanding between the Sheriff's Office and LifePath, the county's public mental health and developmental disabilities provider, sets up what the document calls the Collin County-LifePath Systems Mental Health Unit. It uses a co-responder model: LifePath mental health professionals work alongside deputies, including a mental health deputy trained in crisis intervention through the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
Where it applies
The team works in the Sheriff's Office patrol area. The agreement describes that as mainly the unincorporated parts of the county and towns without their own police department. Cities with police departments handle their own calls.
According to the document, the unit would:
- respond to emergency calls involving people believed to have mental illness, intellectual or developmental disabilities, or substance use disorders;
- make routine and follow-up visits to people in the patrol area who need extra support, with the stated goal of helping them avoid re-arrest;
- help with clinical review of threat assessments referred by the Sheriff's Office unit;
- connect clients to medical care, behavioral health treatment, housing and other services, including help getting identification documents, clothing and food.
The Sheriff's Office agrees to assign a deputy each patrol shift to support a LifePath staff member on emergency calls, as staffing allows, and to try to use a certified mental health peace officer when possible. Each side would give the other a workspace: a desk at the Sheriff's Office for the clinician and space at LifePath's Bloomdale campus for the deputy.