Source: RLS Media
The Union County Prosecutor’s Office is pleased to announce that New Jersey’s highly regarded ARRIVE Together program, which provides compassionate response during 9-1-1 calls involving a mental health crisis, has just been expanded to additional police departments in Union County.
Yhe focus of the ARRIVE Together program is to provide individuals in crisis with whatever help they need as quickly and effectively as possible by teaming up a police officer – specifically trained in crisis intervention — with a civilian-certified mental health screener in order to respond to 9-1-1 calls relating to a mental health crisis.
The officer and crisis worker arrive together. Both are in plain clothes and arrive at the call in an unmarked police vehicle. During the encounter, the mental health screener takes the lead.
The intention is to get the person in crisis the proper help they need as quickly as possible while also preventing escalation and facilitating any necessary de-escalation. The ARRIVE Together team also follows up on these specific calls to ensure that the individual is doing well and does not need additional mental health support.
Director of the Pre-Indictment Division Tiffany Wilson, who is also the UCPO Liaison for the ARRIVE Together Program, states:
“This partnership approach enables a quicker response time to get the individual the help they need, rather than having to wait for the later arrival of a mental health screener. It also helps to avoid having this person come in contact with the criminal justice system.”
Elizabeth and Linden Police Departments were quick to pilot the program in June of 2022, following its creation and the Office of the Attorney General’s pilot launch in November 2021 in Cumberland County involving a partnership between the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey State Police, who provide local police services in that part of the state.
The Roselle Park Police Department launched this program in December of 2022, followed by the current launch by the police departments in Clark, Cranford, Plainfield, Scotch Plains, and Westfield, along with the Union County Police Department and the Union County Sheriff’s Office, in cooperation with the Union County Board of Commissioners.
“Earlier in 2023, I announced a series of initiatives called “Building a Stronger Union County, in which one of my focuses was on the Stepping Up to Mental Health initiative. This program fits right in line with it,” says Commissioner Chairman Sergio Granados.