TEWKSBURY – Chief Ryan Columbus is pleased to announce that the Tewksbury Police Department is welcoming a new co-response mental health clinician to the Behavioral Health Unit Police Collaborative.
Amanda Grant grew up in West Roxbury. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UMass Boston and a Master’s degree in Psychology from William James College. Grant succeeds a co-response clinician who recently left the unit.
Grant will respond alongside Tewksbury police to mental health emergencies and crises as part of the Behavioral Health Unit Police Collaborative, and will work with individuals after crises to ensure they have access to appropriate services.
“I have family members in the policing profession, so the opportunity to collaborate with dedicated and hard-working law enforcement professionals is a privilege which I am very excited about,” Grant said.
The collaborative, funded by a grant from the Department of Mental Health, provides member departments with access to a co-response clinician who can respond to active calls for service, follow up with individuals post-crisis, and make referrals to community-based services.
Fully embedded into each department, the program provides a trauma-informed, highly trained co-response clinician for individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. Grant will work primarily with Tewksbury Police.
Since 2016, the Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Tewksbury, and Tyngsborough Police Departments have worked to create a regional mental health collaborative aimed at diverting individuals with mental health and substance misuse disorders from being unnecessarily processed through the criminal justice system or through already overcrowded emergency rooms.
In addition to on-scene responses, clinicians are:
- Accessible to police 24/7 for mental health consultation
- Available to community members for follow-up with police
- Available for follow-up with individuals post-crisis
- Able to make referrals for community-based services, such as for non-acute levels of care and case management
- Supporting community initiatives for better health, wellness, and mental health
For more information on the Behavioral Health Unit call 978-215-9642 or visit: https://tewksburypolice.com/behavioral-health-unit/.