Georgia pines community service board is proposing to launch a school-based mental health CO-responder program to serve students of colquitt county

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded a $453,720 Project Grant to the Georgia Pines Community Service Board to launch a school-based mental health co-responder program in Colquitt County, Georgia. The program will embed behavioral health specialists with school resource officers to provide crisis intervention, counseling, and service linkage for students experiencing mental illness, addiction, and intellectual/developmental disabilities. This initiative aims to divert youth with behavioral needs from becoming justice-involved by assisting students in crisis, responding to domestic violence or trauma, and providing quality interventions for mental health and addiction issues. The grant was awarded under the Criminal and Juvenile Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (CFDA 16.745), which supports cross-system collaboration to improve public safety responses and outcomes for individuals with mental health disorders.

The CO-responder program will introduce behavioral health specialists to assist the existing school resource officers with real-time responses to incidents involving students with severe mental illness, addiction, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. The CO-responder program will leverage mental health crisis intervention to help divert youth with behavioral needs from becoming justice involved by assisting students who are experiencing crisis in school, responding to domestic violence or trauma, counseling children whose parents may be arrested, and providing quality interventions (or linking to appropriate services) for mental health issues, addiction, and suicidal behaviors.