BURLINGTON, N.C. — More money for mental health.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is investing $1.35 million dollars for crisis co-responder services.
These services deploy teams trained to respond to people experiencing a behavioral health emergency.
Of the three areas receiving that funding, the city of Burlington is one.
It's helping keep people out of jail and giving them options for help.
In communities without robust behavioral health services, law enforcement becomes the default response for those experiencing mental health emergencies.
NCDHHS said it's contributing to the continued cycle of overrepresentation of people with complex behavioral health needs and substance use disorder among the justice-involved population.
In North Carolina, serious mental illness affects 15% of men and 31% of women in jails, and 85% of the prison population has a substance use disorder or was incarcerated for a crime related to substance use.
This is where Burlington's Law Enforcement Crisis Counselor, Samantha Mitchell, is working to change the statistics.
"In my three years in this position, we have had no arrest when I've gone out on scene," said Mitchell.
Mitchell said if there is someone who may want to harm themselves or others, is under the influence, or is disoriented, she comes to the scene.
She said last year she responded to more than 400 calls for service and not one ended in an arrest.
"There's been plenty of situations where it doesn't even come out as a crisis," she said. "Maybe it comes out as trespassing, breaking and entering, or a medical assist and they'll call me out there and I speak with the individual and we find out that there's more to the situation. I'm able to speak with them and we're able to look at hospitalization. We're able to try to avoid them being arrested, right? And having to go to jail."
Mitchell said the service was implemented nearly 8 years ago.
This additional funding will allow them to hire an additional responder for overnights and continue to expand their current program.
"The data is there," she said. "The more people we can reach out to, the more we can help, and the more we can try to avoid those instances in the future where we have crisis."
This investment is part of the state's effort to transform the crisis response system, to ensure North Carolinians have someone to call, someone to respond and somewhere to go for care.