The last seven years that I lived and served in Rapid City, South Dakota, I served as a volunteer Sheriff’s Chaplain. I became interested in law enforcement chaplaincy through my long-standing service on Rapid City’s LOSS team. Local Outreach to Survivors of Suicide (LOSS) was a team of trained suicide first responders that worked in partnership with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office provided coroner services to the county, which means that deputy coroners from the Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to all unattended deaths in the county. When an officer determined that a suicide had occurred, the LOSS team was dispatched by the 911 Call Center to go and assist officers with providing support to surviving friends and family members. We responded at whatever time of day or night the call came. LOSS volunteers underwent rigorous training and were equipped with knowledge and resources from community organizations, information on access to support and mental health services, training in coroner procedures so they could assist survivors in understanding what was going on, and other resources. LOSS team members then provided follow-up services during the following year to make sure that survivors were receiving the support they needed. The parent organization of the LOSS team, the Front Porch Coalition, also provided a support group for survivors of suicide and sponsored an annual suicide prevention conference and an Out of the Darkness walk to raise awareness and funds for survivor services. I became a trained support group facilitator and served on the Board of Directors of the Front Porch Coalition.

For the most part, my volunteer hours with the LOSS team were scheduled during the night because I was working full time serving a church during the day. I often rose in the wee hours of the morning to respond to a crisis.I learned to be ready to be dressed quickly and respond to the location in the county dispatch directed me. My GPS was an essential tool, but I also knew that dispatch could provide directions as well as send officers to assist when needed.

Through my work with the LOSS team, I often listened to coroners and investigators at the scene of a suicide and frequently followed up with them a few days later. I began to realize that law enforcement officers were also survivors of suicide, having witnessed the scenes of multiple deaths and learning the circumstances that led up to tragedies. Every seasoned law enforcement officer becomes a trauma survivor and needs support services. For that reason the Pennington County Sheriff shared a licensed professional counselor shared with the Rapid City Police Department and the Rapid City Fire Department to provide support to officers. In addition the chaplains provided spiritual support to officers.

Through my work with the LOSS Team and Sheriff’s department, I became aware of several deficiencies in support services for those struggling with mental illness. During the years we lived in Rapid City, Rapid City Regional Hospital spent tens of millions of dollars expanding emergency room services. State of the art medical services were available to respond to virtually any health crisis that could arise. The Hospital provided level 3 trauma center services to the region. However, there was no corresponding service available for those who suffered from mental illness. While Rapid City Regional Hospital did operate a small emergency facility for in-patient treatment of mental illness, it was located across town from the hospital emergency room. If those suffering acute mental illness approached the emergency room for assistance, they were often left on their own to travel across town where they generally could not receive assessment or treatment for days or even weeks. When law enforcement officers responded to a call of someone in mental health crisis they often found themselves without the tools to respond. There were a few cases where those suffering were temporarily incarcerated because there were no other ways to keep that person or others safe. There was a running dispute between law enforcement and the hospital as to who should take responsibility for those suffering from acute crises.

With my familiarity with those issues and the problems faced by those suffering from mental illness and their family members, I have been paying close attention to a new health team that was first deployed in my new home, Whatcom County, last July. Dubbed the Alternative Response Team (ART) the service is staffed by six professional mental health professionals who are on call 24/7 to respond to mental health crisis calls. Members of the team are dispatched along with police or sheriff’s officers to respond when a crisis occurs. They are trained not only in providing immediate response to acute mental health crises, but also in the assessment and treatment of drug overdoses. They are equipped with medicine to treat acute Fentanyl overdose and can be backed up by EMTs as requested. While police and deputies wear official law enforcement uniforms, ART team members are identified by the logos on their hoodies, vests, jackets, and caps. The lack of an official uniform makes them less threatening, especially to those who suffer from paranoia and delusions of needing to run from officers.

Whatcom County’s largest city, Bellingham is approximately 20% larger than Rapid City and the county also has a larger population than Pennington County in South Dakota. I assume that because of the increased population, the need for ART services is proportionately larger than what might be needed in Pennington County, but a team of six seems to be minimal to simply provide 24/76 coverage.

In its first six months of operation, ART responded to 830 crisis calls clearly demonstrating the need of the team in our area. Full information is not yet publicly available, but it is safe to assume that they were able to significantly decrease the work load of law enforcement officers freeing those officers to respond to the calls for which they are trained. In addition, it is difficult to assess the impact of ART in the lives of those suffering from mental illness and their families. I am confident that the impact has been significant.

I’ll be paying close attention in months and years to come. I hope that the program becomes not only an essential part of community infrastructure, but also a model for other places with similar populations to observe and imitate. The impact of the team on suicide rates is not yet assessable, but I will be paying attention to those statistics as information becomes available as well.

So far it appears that the ART is a success and a necessary element in our community’s response to acute health care needs.