The Lawrence City Commission is slated to pass a 2017 budget by August.

At one point, officers with the Lawrence Police Department responded to hundreds of calls a year from one individual with mental health issues, each officer trying to handle the situation while on regular patrol duty.

One officer “took charge” in the situation, said Lawrence Police Chief Tarik Khatib, and worked with the district attorney’s office to go through the person’s outstanding cases and connect the individual to mental health care.

In that instance, the officer sacrificed time and other duties — but it worked.

“The rate of calls for the person has almost disappeared,” Khatib said.

“If we just had somebody who could follow up and take care of people from a law enforcement level, it would go a long way toward funneling people into longer-term resources to be successful.”

Situations like that one led Khatib to push for a “mental health squad” on the force — the creation of which is included in the Lawrence city manager’s recommended 2017 budget.

If it remains when city commissioners pass a budget in August, the four-person squad will determine what intervention is necessary for people with mental health issues, improving the potential for them to be diverted from the criminal justice system. The squad will also develop policies for how police care for mentally ill and intoxicated people and those with substance abuse issues, among other things.

A clinical case manager employed through Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center would be part of the squad and work full-time out of the police department.

City Manager Tom Markus budgeted $256,449 to create the squad, $50,000 of which would go to Bert Nash to hire the case manager.

The total amount is $74,503 less than requested. Instead of adding three new positions for the squad, two will be added and the third will be an officer reassigned from another post.

It’s been reiterated throughout the city’s 2017 budget process that funding is tight. Markus recommended more money toward some City Commission priorities, such as affordable housing and bicycle and pedestrian transportation, but the budget also includes cuts — to city staff, outside agencies and within city departments.

“I know budget times are tough, but it’s an exciting new project. It’s the first time we’re going to have a response squad like this, and it’s certainly the first time Bert Nash has a full-time person really embedded in the police department,” said Bert Nash CEO Dave Johnson. “The idea isn’t all that new. But it is new here.”

According to data from the Lawrence Police Department, mental health-related dispatch calls have increased since 2000, with “check welfare” calls rising from 570 to 1,651 in 2016. Calls for suicide attempts increased from 366 in 2000 to 615 in 2015.

In 2012, the police department started looking into crisis intervention training for its officers. As of April, 64 officers, or 42 percent of the force, had received the training. The department’s goal is to have all officers trained by the end of 2017.

Khatib started planning for the creation of a mental health squad in 2015, after hearing about the squad at the San Antonio Police Department.

Johnson County started a similar effort, the “co-responder program,” in 2011. It started in Olathe and expanded in 2013 to Overland Park and this year to Lenexa and Shawnee.

According to a 2014 case study on the Johnson County program by the National Association of Counties, it led to a decrease in the number of police calls that culminate in someone going to jail or a hospital. It also helped to increase the number of people who receive ongoing mental health treatment after calling the police, the case study states.

“The ability to intervene as early as you can really increases your opportunities for success and recovery for people who are facing a crisis and mental health challenge,” Johnson said. “It makes a real difference.”

If funding for the project goes through, Khatib said he’d establish the squad as soon as staffing levels allow for it. The department is facing a shortage of patrol officers, he said, and replacements are currently going through the police academy. A class graduates from the academy in November.

Other mental health care funding

When elected, the City Commission listed mental health as one of its priorities. According to city data, slightly more than $1 million is allocated toward that priority in the city manager’s budget. The $1 million includes the mental health squad, other funding toward Bert Nash, and facility improvements to the Community Health Building.

With the $50,000 for a case manager to work as part of the mental health squad, Markus’ recommended budget calls for Bert Nash to receive more overall from the city than it did in 2016: $515,785 in 2017 compared with $503,208 in 2016.

But the budget does not grant Bert Nash its full request for its WRAP (Working to Recognize Alternative Possibilities) program, through which the agency provides mental health services in local schools. It’s also receiving less than requested — and less than in 2016 — for its case managers to help those facing homelessness.

Bert Nash received $350,000 for the WRAP program in 2016, requested $350,000 for 2017 and is set to get $321,815 in the recommended budget. For case managers, Bert Nash received $153,208 in the 2016 budget, requested $178,208 for 2017 and would receive $143,970 based on the city manager’s recommendations.

Johnson said he wasn’t sure yet how the cuts would affect services.

Bert Nash lost more than $1 million in state Medicaid funding when Gov. Sam Brownback issued a package of allotment cuts in May to balance the Kansas budget. It’s one of more than two dozen community mental health centers around Kansas that have lost a combined $30 million a year in Medicaid funds to treat low-income individuals with serious mental health problems, the Journal-World has reported.

“I’ve heard this before, people think Bert Nash is big and better able to absorb these cuts,” Johnson said of the decreased amounts from the city. “But we’re cut so deeply by state decisions, we can’t pick that up. There will be cuts and they will be felt. We’re going to have to pull every rabbit out of the hat.”

As a result of the state cuts, Bert Nash has closed its Eudora office and eliminated a few positions.

Johnson said he has requested extra funds from Douglas County to help offset the loss of state dollars. Besides its typical request to the county, Bert Nash asked for an extra $154,000.

The amount was not included in County Administrator Craig Weinaug’s recommended budget presented to Douglas County commissioners Wednesday.