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Breaking the stigma: Scranton mental health professional partners with law enforcement

Mandy LaCoe (second from right), completed Crisis Intervention Team training. She works with Lackawanna and Susquehanna County police departments as the designated crisis co-responder. Pictured from left: Marie Onukiavage (CIT Coordinator), Cherianne Marsicano (CIT Coordinator), John Chilleri (CIT Coordinator), Mandy LaCoe (SCC Crisis Co-Responder) and Ray Hayes (CIT Coordinator).
Submitted by Scranton Counseling Center
Mandy LaCoe (second from right), completed Crisis Intervention Team training. She works with Lackawanna and Susquehanna County police departments as the designated crisis co-responder. Pictured from left: Marie Onukiavage (CIT Coordinator), Cherianne Marsicano (CIT Coordinator), John Chilleri (CIT Coordinator), Mandy LaCoe (SCC Crisis Co-Responder) and Ray Hayes (CIT Coordinator).

Mental health calls can end in tragedy.

Mandy LaCoe is part of a team working to prevent that from happening in Northeast Pennsylvania.

“When somebody is in crisis and they see an officer, their brain thinks they're in trouble,” said LaCoe, who serves as the Scranton Counseling Center's designated mental health co-responder.

“They're not in trouble, the officer is there to help them, but seeing me come, not in a uniform, and come in casual clothing, and tell them, ‘I'm here to help you, I'm a mental health professional.’ It definitely relieves them a little bit, and they know then they're not always going to be in trouble.”

LaCoe assists police officers on mental health calls to ensure a positive outcome for the patients. As a mental health professional, she takes charge of the situation when the police departments call for her help.

LaCoe’s presence is intended to help diffuse mental health situations, because individuals in crisis can become overwhelmed by police presence.

Her efforts help make such situations less dangerous for everyone involved, including police, and can free officers to work on other calls.

“We are not trained specifically in mental health, we only could evaluate initially, but we're not in-depth trained,” said Throop Police Chief Andy Kerecman. “That's not our forte.”

The co-responder position was created in 2022, and LaCoe has held the position since June.

It is part of a program in which law enforcement agencies in Lackawanna and Susquehanna counties have partnered with the center to make responses safer for individuals in crisis.

According to a 2015 study from the Treatment Advocacy Center, individuals with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement during an encounter than normal civilians.

Advocates in Northeast Pennsylvania vowed to change that norm after a 2009 incident left a Brenda Williams dead.

Williams was dealing with serious untreated mental illness. Her final interaction with law enforcement led to the Scranton woman's untimely death.

The co-responder position works out of the Scranton Counseling Center.
Submitted by Scranton Counseling Center
The co-responder position works out of the Scranton Counseling Center.

Diversion without force

LaCoe’s main goal is to ensure that individuals experiencing a mental health crisis are diverted from the county jail or from being "302’ed" and sent to the hospital.

A 302, named for a section of the state's mental health law, is a request for an emergency psychiatric evaluation and involuntary commitment for someone considered a danger to themselves or others during a mental health episode.

This helps the individual in crisis avoid a negative encounter with law enforcement and allows LaCoe to streamline resources.

“A lot of times they're having a momentary crisis and not a long term crisis,” LaCoe said. “302 is also something that stays on your record. We don't always want that for people. Sometimes they just need to be de-escalated and provided the resources.”

Going to jail could exacerbate the situation.

“When someone is going through something [with] their mental health and they're in a jail setting, it's not exactly the best setting for them,” LaCoe said. “They feel isolated, and you don't want to isolate somebody because of a mental illness. That's doing the opposite of what you need to do.”

Lifting a burden

Many cities around the nation employ a co-responder model.

According to a 2021 analysis by the U.S. Department of Justice, “the co-responder team model is most appropriately labeled as a promising practice in police-based behavioral health crisis response.”

After the Scranton Police Department, LaCoe said her services are most utilized by Throop’s police department.

Throop's police chief Andy Kerecman takes advantage of the mental health assistance out of the Scranton Counseling Center and NAMI.
Submitted by Chief Andy Kerecman
Throop's police chief Andy Kerecman takes advantage of the mental health assistance out of the Scranton Counseling Center and NAMI.

As a small department, Kerecman said LaCoe’s assistance helps Throop distribute its resources, freeing up police from mental health calls.

Many mental health scenarios do not require police presence, but people often do not know who else to call. This ties up police in situations that are out of their wheelhouse, while taking them away from calls that are.

Once the situation is deemed safe, police are able to leave the scene and leave patients with LaCoe. By avoiding 302s, LaCoe’s help also diverts more patients from emergency rooms, opening up beds for people experiencing medical emergencies.

“The amount of mental health calls that the police receive is astronomically high,” said Katlyn D’Agostino, the Scranton Counseling Center’s crisis services coordinator. “There's not time to focus on other things that the police could be focusing on when they're constantly going out on mental health calls. That's where the idea came from for Mandy to try to de-escalate situations better because there's so many mental health patients in the emergency rooms. They take up a majority of beds at the ER and they could be used for medical patients.”

Katlyn D’Agostino serves as Scranton Counseling Center's crisis services coordinator.
Submitted by Scranton Counseling Center
Katlyn D’Agostino serves as Scranton Counseling Center's crisis services coordinator.

Throop Lieutenant Chris Mazzucca partnered with LaCoe on several calls this year and intends to continue working with her. He finds having a trained mental health professional on call allows him to better fulfill his personal mission as a police officer.

“It's our job with that oath that we swore to go above and beyond for any and everyone,” he said.

Kerecman acknowledged that law enforcement has a history of negative interactions with individuals with mental health issues. LaCoe’s work helps reverse that trend.

“The outcome is a positive outcome between the person in crisis and law enforcement,” Kerecman said.

Tragedy prompted change

While officers today are trained to recognize the signs of a mental health crisis, Williams’ 2009 death was the catalyst for change.

After having the police called on her numerous times during one weekend, Williams’s last interaction with Scranton police ended with her charging officers with a knife and officers firing their guns, killing her in the process.

The officers’ actions were found justified, but mental health advocates thought the situation could have been prevented if officers recognized the signs of a mental health crisis earlier on in their interactions with Williams.

“It was found to be a justifiable incident,” said Marie Onukiavage, the executive director of Northeast Pennsylvania’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s (NAMI). “We [the task force] determined that, although that was justifiable, what else could we do to avoid that ever happening again? We determined that CIT (Crisis Intervention Team training) was the best choice. Adding the co-responder, it's the next logical step along that continuum of response.”

Marie Onukiavage serves as NAMI's executive director for Pennsylvania's northeast region.
Submitted by Marie Onukiavage
Marie Onukiavage serves as NAMI's executive director for Pennsylvania's northeast region.

CIT training aims to give law enforcement rudimentary tools to recognize mental health crises and learn how to interact with individuals experiencing one to maximize the chances of a positive law enforcement response.

Onukiavage partnered with Northeast Pennsylvania police departments to offer CIT trainings. Kerecman happily complied, and now most of his officers are CIT-certified. Still, LaCoe’s assistance helps strengthen the officers’ response to mental health calls.

This year's crisis intervention team training graduates and coordinators.
Submitted by Marie Onukiavage
This year's crisis intervention team training graduates and coordinators.

“We know that law enforcement, despite all the training that we give them, they're still law enforcement, and their response is going to be a law enforcement response,” Onukiavage said.

Awareness issues

While departments like Throop’s regularly utilize LaCoe’s services, she said her lack of use in other departments, especially in Susquehanna County, is likely an awareness issue.

Because LaCoe’s position is grant funded, getting used more often would prove that her position is necessary, and maybe even make the case for more than one co-responder.

In Throop, Mazzucca hopes the community sees the importance of LaCoe’s position.

“We can't put money over mental health,” he said.

Throop's Lt. Chris Mazzucca has used Mandy LaCoe's assistance several times this year.
Submitted by Chris Mazzucca
Throop's Lt. Chris Mazzucca has used Mandy LaCoe's assistance several times this year.

The Scranton Counseling Center is still figuring out how to raise awareness for the co-responder position, which has been in place since 2022.

“I think once we get more referrals and more police departments involved, that we can definitely pull in a second one,” D’Agostino said.

While the co-responder position is a step forward to more comprehensive mental health care and understanding, LaCoe is only one person.

According to the Scranton Counseling Center, LaCoe's hours are 3 p.m. -11p.m. The daytime crew operates from 8 a.m -5 p.m. As Mazzucca noted, mental health is not confined to certain times of the day.

“Mental health isn't just happening between eight and five," Mazzucca said. "We need 24/7 responders like Mandy to help us out. We need more of her.”

The partnership allows for an increased understanding of mental health issues in law enforcement and the broader community.

“We're coming at that stigma one brick at a time and we've come really far with the whole first responder community,” Okuniavage said. “Treating people with compassion is a win-win, not only for the individual who's in crisis, but for law enforcement and their position in the community and how the community sees them.”

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