YARMOUTH – The Yarmouth Police Department has been awarded a $60,000 grant through the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health for FY21 to continue working with those with mental health related issues in our community. This is the fourth year in a row that the grant has been awarded to the Yarmouth Police Department. The funding will support the part-time mental health clinician position as well as our outreach program, which helps connect individuals with appropriate services. The funding will also continue the ongoing training of our officers and dispatchers to better address and interact with individuals in mental health crisis.
The Yarmouth Police Department currently has 14 officers, 10 sergeants and 1 lieutenant who have advanced training in Crisis Intervention Training. The YPD also has 6 patrol officers and 2 patrol sergeants who have additional responsibilities with the Mental Health Outreach Team. Sergeant Diana Wells supervises the unit and coordinates outreach with our part-time Mental Health Clinician, Patrick McGuire. We are very thankful to have the funding support of DMH to help us continue to provide the highest quality service to our community.
The mission of the Yarmouth Police Department Community Crisis Intervention (CCIT) and Mental Health Outreach Team is to use officer education and relationship building to compassionately meet the needs of community stakeholders who suffer with mental illness. Through the use of proactive outreach and enhanced training, we are able to provide professional and effective police response to mental health crisis calls.
