Meridian is thrilled to announce we have partnered with the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) to implement a Co-Responder program in effort to enhance the community’s holistic response to mental health crisis. The program will consist of a team of one GPD officer and one Meridian mental health clinician; who will partner to work a flexible, 40-hour shift. The team will ride together in a marked police vehicle and will respond to calls for service involving persons with mental illness, mental healthcare crisis, and calls involving emotionally charged situations. Their focus will be individuals identified as high utilizers of crisis stabilization units, emergency rooms, and the Alachua County Jail. 70 percent of the team’s time will be spent responding to calls in the community and conducting follow up visits to people engaged as they work calls. The remaining 30 percent will be dedicated to leading and facilitating high utilizer case staffing’s. The team will also utilize time within their shift to address issues at the 0-intercept point in the Sequential Intercept Model. Intercept 0 focuses on designing mental health/law enforcement systems to connect individuals in need with treatment before a behavioral health crisis begins, at the earliest stage possible. The Co-responder program is sponsored by Meridian Behavioral Healthcare, the City of Gainesville, LSF Health Systems LLC, and the State of Florida, Department of Children and Families.

Meridian Partners with Gainesville Police Department for Co-Responder Program

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