Orland Park Police Announce New Mental Health Response Program

ORLAND PARK, IL — The Orland Park Police Department said it has incorporated a new Mental Health Response Unit during an announcement at a new conference in the Orland Park Police Station, 15100 S. Ravinia Ave., Wednesday morning.

Officials said the new program was created to ensure the mental health needs of all residents are met, which is especially relevant during the coronavirus pandemic. The new unit is created in partnership with Trinity Services, and officials say it allows for real-time, thorough and in-depth assistance for those in need, when and where they need it most.

The new program is already in effect after starting Oct. 27 in Orland Park. Lt. Troy Siewert said police applied for a grant to start the program in September 2019.

The new unit integrates with the village’s public safety system by dispatching a mental health crisis worker alongside public safety workers to crises involving people experiencing mental illness and substance abuse problems, officials said.

According to officials, when the mental health response is activated, law enforcement plays a supporting role instead of the primary role. The village said this will be done to acknowledge the consensus that mental-health crises should not be criminal justice matters.

"The police department will still respond to mental health related calls of service and a trained officer will deescalate the situation quickly, until it is safe to bring in a member of the Trinity staff," Siewert said. "They will then continue to deescalate and find the proper course of treatment."

Officials said a variety of factors have led to the start of this program, some including cuts for mental health funding in Illinois, the closure of a local mental health facility, a decrease in inpatient psychiatric beds over the past several decades, and a lack of adequate funding for community-based mental health services.

Mental health related calls will be differentiated from other forms of emergency calls by the dispatcher, who is trained to spot if a call may be mental health related.

"In the event it is not caught by a dispatcher at that time, when an office gets on scene, he can call for a CIT trained officer," Siewert said. "As part of this grant we also received funding for training, and every single officer in this department has been mental health awareness trained, so officers do recognize the signs and symptoms in someone who may have a mental health illness or may be in crisis.

"We do err on the side of caution. If there is any potential that it may be a mental health crisis a CIT officer and trinity service representative will be dispatched."

According to officials, 1 in 4 adults around the nation with severe mental illness are killed in police encounters. Orland Park Police say this new program changes the way public safety personnel go about the needs of those with mental illness.

The new program is available 24-hours a day, seven days a week, according to Siewert. The lieutenant said the department is looking to keep the program as a permeant addition to Orland Park, adding that by the end of the three-year grant, the police department hopes to expand the program to neighboring towns.

"In year three of the grant, we also have five other local police departments we will be helping bring into the program," Siewert said. "Palos Heights Police Department, Palos Park, Midlothian, Orland Hills and Oak Forest ... All five are on board, and we have been meeting with them."

For additional information on the new Mental Health Response program, call the Orland Park Police Department at (708) 349-4111.