Beaumont, CA - The Beaumont Police Department has joined with the Riverside University Health System Behavioral Health Department to form a collaborative Community Behavioral Health Assessment Team (CBAT). CBAT seeks to avoid adverse outcomes by diverting individuals with mental health issues to appropriate community services and behavioral health resources. By providing specialized training to CBAT officers and by focusing their scope of responsibilities, the Beaumont Police Department intends to provide more in-depth assistance to people in need of behavioral health services. CBAT also augments the Community Policing Team’s homeless outreach efforts. The Beaumont Police and CBAT exemplifies the increasingly crucial partnerships between police and the communities they serve, delivering needed social services required to keep our community safe.
In an effort to significantly increase our CBAT service delivery, the Beaumont Police Department, Banning Police Department and the Riverside Sheriff’s Department (Cabazon Station) have partnered their CBAT programs. All three agencies have an agreement in place that allows CBAT services to be delivered across two cities and unincorporated areas of Riverside County. We recognize there are significant community advantages realized when partnering each other’s mental health efforts through collaboration, information sharing and training.
The team utilizes a specially trained member of the Beaumont Police Department, Banning Police Department and a Deputy from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. The officer or deputy is paired with a County of Riverside clinician, who ride together responding to calls for service anywhere within the Pass Area when available. The clinician’s time is divided between the communities of Beaumont, Banning and Cabazon. At each call they handle, the clinician takes the lead role in evaluating the behavioral health issue while the officer provides the safety over-watch and law enforcement expertise. From there individuals and/or their families are provided with immediate behavioral health resources to provide them with the support and services they need to keep themselves or their family members safe. This model also helps to keep police officers in the field and available to respond to other high priority or emergency calls.
Several Riverside County agencies have already implemented similar CBAT programs and have realized significant success in dealing with individuals in crisis. We are excited about this partnership and look forward to its success in the Pass area.