Lincoln County Crisis Response Team in limbo

Lincoln County’s Crisis Response Team is having a crisis of its own.

The team stopped operating sometime in the last few months and its future is in jeopardy while new leadership is sought.

County probation officer Vanessa Williamson, on the job since 2018, led the effort to build a crisis intervention team after seeing many jail inmates who suffered from mental illness and substance abuse. She attended a training event in 2021 and then developed a local academy in 2022 where first responders learned how to improve their responses to mental and substance abuse crises.

The news about the Crisis Response Team’s demise was circulating before it officially became public at the Jan. 14 county Health Board meeting.

According to county Commissioner Jim Hammons, two grants that would have funded the team and a drop-in center, didn’t come in until late December from the state.

Hammons, in a recent conversation with The Western News, said the county has not signed the contracts from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. The grants, which total about $1 million, would fund the response team and a walk-in center where people needing help could gain access to services.

Hammons, who opposed the drop-in center during previous discussions about it in 2024, said he has spoken with Cabinet Peaks Medical Center about taking over the response team and providing a walk-in center. 

The team was operated under the direction of the county Justice Court, which includes probation officers.

“Cabinet Peaks Medical Center is working on a Memorandum of Understanding to take this over and I imagine they would do the walk-in center. We know the county needs it,” Hammons said.

A medical center employee confirmed there have been talks about running the team but said there was no time frame for when it might get done.

Hammons said he hoped the county could get it up and running in February.

Hammons said his primary opposition to the county running the crisis response team and a possible walk-in center is staffing.

“We don’t have the staff to run it,” he said. “They were doing a good job, but it was taking up too much time and the personnel there couldn’t handle it.

“They have other jobs to do and it didn’t fit there,” Hammons said.

But, according to an April 2024 story https://dailymontanan.com/2024/04/23/montana-nonprofits-supportive-of-states-recommendations-to-behavioral-health-commission/ on the news site, Daily Montanan, DPPHS wanted to add new crisis stabilization centers that would give mobile crisis responders somewhere to take those needing care because Montana has limited access to stabilization centers. 

State officials said the ideal outcome would be less reliance on emergency room services and a decrease in need for psychiatric hospitalization.

Lincoln County Sheriff Darren Short said he hopes something gets resolved.

“The Crisis Response Team was a huge asset for us, saving several man hours in dealing with mental health crises,” Short said. “Crisis Team members would deal with a person in crisis and we wouldn’t have to have a deputy tied up for several hours.

“I don’t care who runs it, but the team was working very well. We could call day or night and there was someone to help.”

There is no argument that the team is needed. 

“I’d really like to highlight the mental health crisis that is occurring in our county,” Williamson said. “Seventy to 80% of the people in the county jail have mental health issues.

“There’s a man from Troy who has dementia. He and his wife have been married 52 years, but he’s getting violent, he has an order of protection against him and now he’s living in a local hotel in Libby just wandering around. He’s a prime example of someone who needs referred to services,” Williamson said. 

A review of the county Sheriff’s Office daily activity log from Jan. 14 to Jan. 22, indicated there were 5 calls directly identified as mental health. Two indicated suicidal ideation. From Jan. 7 to Jan. 13, there were five mental health calls, including one suicidal ideation. From Dec. 15 to Dec. 26, there were 11 mental health calls, including four suicidal ideation. In a span of 28 days, the total was 21 mental health calls, including seven suicidal ideation.

“Mental health calls have been increasing over the last few years, especially since COVID, and it really hasn’t slowed down. Sheriff’s offices across the state are all seeing the same things,” Short said.

Health Board member Kristin Smith asked at the Jan. 14 meeting if people in crisis had no one to talk to.

Health Board Director Kathi Hooper said the crisis care team couldn’t operate without its coordinator. Deb Burrell was the crisis care coordinator for the last two years. She began her job in the coordinator role Jan. 6, 2023.

Hammons blamed her for mis-stating the grant matches that were required of the county to operate the crisis response team.

“We were told on numerous occasions that it was 90%, but then we find out it was only 10%,” Hammons said.

But Burrell told The Western News she didn’t handle or know anything about the contracts.

Burrell, who was a county detention officer from 2017 to 2023, thought she was out of a job a month ago after the commissioners didn’t sign the contract for the crisis response work.

Her husband suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and for about 10 days she didn’t know if she had a job or health insurance.

An effort by Williamson persuaded the commissioners to keep Burrell employed in the probation department.

Burrell said she still takes calls from law enforcement responding to a crisis situation, but she can not respond in person.

At a July 31 county commission meeting, Williamson reported getting a $704,132 grant to start a walk-in center. Williamson said the grant didn’t cover rent so a large office in the county Annex building on Mineral Avenue in Libby would house the walk-in center until another location could be found.

“Most of the time it’s housed in community health centers or hospitals,” Williamson said then. “We’ll make it work for now before we look at other operations.”

At the time, Hammons questioned the location and why a medical facility wasn’t doing this.

“So this is for people who have issues and they just show up? Having something like this in a public building seems weird to me,” Hammons said at the July 31 meeting.

Williamson said that people seeking help were already showing up at their offices because the crisis response team was located there and the Health Department is on the second floor of the Annex building.

Hammons and then-Commissioner Josh Letcher questioned at the July 31 meeting why the county had to be running this instead of a non-profit or a health care facility.

“It’s tough for me because we are losing funding for things we are supposed to do and we keep adding and adding,” Letcher said then. “We talk about reducing government and we just add more government. I just don’t understand why these places can’t step up and help.”

“Or a non-profit, the funding is there,” Hammons said.

Williamson said the state wants to see where similar things have worked in the past.

“Even if a non-profit were to be started today, to get this grant the state wants to see what has worked before,” Williamson said. “We got this grant because we have the crisis team, we have buy-in from the sheriff’s office and working so closely with treatment court, we’ve proven as a county we work well together.

“Park County is using our model to develop its own,” she said. “And the non-profits haven’t been successful in keeping these agencies open.”

Williamson also said in July that she didn’t believe the hospital would take on the drop-in center project.

At the July 31 meeting, Hammons said the drop-in center sounded like a homeless shelter.

Williamson replied, “It’s absolutely not a homeless shelter.”

“I could see this taking days to get them these services,” Hammons replied.

Williamson said that would not be the case.

“We’re not going to house them for days,” she said. “They might have to come back during our business hours. It’s not going to be a 24-7 facility, it’ll be 8 to 5, we’re not going to let people hang out there and we don’t allow them to now.”