The Newark Police Department joins the ranks of Delaware law enforcement with a Behavioral Health Unit.
The new unit has been developed in collaboration with ChristianaCare, and the objective is to better serve community members experiencing mental health crises.
This partnership aims to enhance the response to mental health-related calls by providing specialized, compassionate care.
Newark Police hired Eric Harrington as its new Mental Health Case Manager. He’s a civilian mental health care professional employed through ChristianaCare.
Newark Police Lt. Greg D’Elia explains how it all works.
"We're working with a formal referral process, and we're working on programming more than anything else,” said D’Elia. “So Eric's job is to receive referrals that come through our report writing system when we contact someone on the field and to be able to get that referral via email connection, be able to read the reports, look at the reports, triage, and prioritize which ones need immediate need."
D’Elia adds that Harrington connects the people they come in contact during patrol work with available resources and gets them where they need to be.
He says they also hope to reduce follow-up incidents with people who need mental health care by getting them the help right away.
"As police officers we see mental health issues that could lead to a criminal thing, but they're not always. They might just be a service complaint where we're not necessarily arresting someone or dealing with a crime problem. It might just be they need help," said D’Elia.
The program is funded through the Delaware Criminal Justice Council’s federal pass-thru Connect and Protect Grant.
Newark joins other law enforcement, including New Castle County, Dover and Milford, with behavioral health units.
