Lakeville to embed social worker within police department
LAKEVILLE, Minn. -- Lakeville has recently approved embedding a social worker within their police department to help field crisis calls, as an estimated 20% of all police calls involve a mental health or substance abuse crisis.
"We don't necessarily consider what we do a bridge to something, we consider ourselves the intervention," said social worker Kibbie Claflin with Dakota County.
She works side by side with police officers and sheriff's deputies as part of a group of mental health professionals within the county. Social workers are embedded into 10 of the 12 different law enforcement agencies throughout the county, including Lakeville.
"It can be anything, it can, a kiddo not getting up for school can be a mental health crisis in that home," said Claflin.
Since December of last year the Dakota County Crisis Response Unit received 694 transfer calls from 911, averaging about 77 calls a month. Of those calls, 78% of them they were able to handle on their own with social workers and mental health professionals, without needing to involve law enforcement.
This kind of help is meant to be long term, with follow-ups and resources for each person.
Andrea Lockhart oversees the program and says the partnership is meant to be a holistic approach. She says it's working.
"When you put the two of them together, it's an incredible team to actually do some pretty significant work," she said.
The Lakeveille embedded social worker position was just approved by the city council this week. They're looking for candidates to fill that position now.
