In Clear Creek County, there’s now an alternative to the police being dispatched every time a local calls 911. The county now has a mental health team ready to respond to crises at a moment’s notice. The change comes more than a year after 22-year-old Christian Glass was shot to death while suffering mental health issues, not having done anything wrong…
The new duo is prepared, Director Clark Church says, to respond to situations with a different approach than on a standard emergency call…
230830 C Church- hang out a bit :04 Q:…solutions to problems…
He and his partner, licensed professional counselor Lynzee Buseck, will also show up in plain clothes, in an old pickup truck, with no guns, ready to listen. Some thought the Sheriff’s office was trying to listen to Glass last summer, when he was in crisis. But that situation ended up with a deputy standing on the hood of his pickup, shooting him to death. That’s the kind of thing this team hopes to avoid and eliminate, getting people out of a crisis mindset. The two of them, with help of little Corgi dog Olive, will try to provide a therapist’s approach to folks needing help, the only goal being to solve their problem, a different angle than law enforcement’s traditional approach…
230830 L Buseck- different intervention :10 Q:…type of intervention…
If the funding was available, they’d like to increase their team of 2 to at least 7, with multiple pairs able to cover their county 24-7. They start out only working 40 hours a week, so outside standard hours, Clear Creek will call in backups from nearby Evergreen.