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Q&A
Council Member Narcisse questions DOC on mental health services and staff recruitment
0:47:11
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4 min
Council Member Mercedes Narcisse questions Department of Corrections officials about mental health services for incarcerated individuals, staff training, and recruitment/retention of correctional officers. DOC representatives discuss measures taken to address these issues, including specialized housing areas for mental health needs, crisis intervention training, and wellness initiatives for staff.
- DOC highlights the creation of wellness centers and a retention team to support new officers
- Officials mention a grant from the office of mental health for new training programs
- Council member Narcisse expresses concern about staffing for medical appointments for incarcerated individuals
Mercedes Narcisse
0:47:11
Good morning and thank you chairs.
0:47:14
What measures are being taken on this budget to ensure that incarcerated individuals, particularly those with mental health needs, have access to adequate mental health services and care?
0:47:28
Are there plans to expand access to mental health professionals and crisis intervention teams within our correctional facilities?
0:47:40
And second, how does this budget address the recruitment and retention of correctional officers and what is being done to ensure that staff receive the necessary training to handle complex issues like mental health crisis, de escalation, and trauma informed care.
Francis Torres
0:48:06
Thank you for your question Councilmember Narcisse.
0:48:09
Deputy commissioner Saunders will open up with remarks and responses relevant to mental health, crisis, and crisis intervention.
James Saunders
0:48:19
Thank you.
Manuel Castro
0:48:19
So
Mercedes Narcisse
0:48:19
And can you make it short for me specifically?
0:48:22
Because I have a few others.
0:48:23
Yes.
James Saunders
0:48:24
Sure.
0:48:24
So as you know, our colleagues at CHS operate the clinical side, and they have different specialized housing areas, one mental observation, CAPS and PACE.
0:48:37
So you have mental health needs being addressed through that vehicle.
0:48:42
In addition, there's training provided at the academy and ongoing training in crisis intervention and de escalation, mental health first aid training, and including CPR and other types of training.
Sandy Nurse
0:49:06
Think I had
James Saunders
0:49:07
a second I'm keeping it brief.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:49:09
I had a second part.
0:49:10
I don't think I hear it.
0:49:11
The budget.
0:49:12
How does this budget address the recruitment and retention of correctional officers?
0:49:17
And what being done to ensure the staff receiving the necessary part you said?
Francis Torres
0:49:33
Since Commissioner McGinley Leery's appointment as commissioner, we have been committed to ensuring the wellness of our staff.
0:49:44
When it comes to recruitment and retention, that is something that we're focusing on.
0:49:50
In fact, late last year we developed a retention team consisting of officers and supported by the deputy commissioner and assistant commissioners from our training academy.
0:50:05
Those retention officers are the ones that conduct follow ups with our newly assigned officers to ensure that they are well supported by any of us or by them as they go through the new challenges that they face in this new position.
0:50:27
But what we have done in addition to that is the office of mental health has awarded our department with a grant that we have made great strides in.
0:50:39
We have indeed onboarded new training to support our staff members such as resiliency and peer tutoring and peer support.
0:50:49
It is crucial that as we do that we also continue to invest in development or the development of wellness centers throughout our department.
0:51:01
We are happy to share with you that earlier this month we opened up four wellness centers.
0:51:08
We are in total now have six wellness centers that allowed our staff members to actually be able to go into those areas to assume or have time to process anything that has transpired?
Mercedes Narcisse
0:51:24
Don't have much time, but I wanna know how many actually using the wellness.
0:51:28
I was gonna have some question about wellness.
Francis Torres
0:51:30
I'll be more than happy to do a follow-up and share with you that specific.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:51:34
And one more thing.
0:51:36
Do you have enough staff to escort PICs to medical appointments?
0:51:40
Because last time we were here, we were talking about budget.
0:51:43
Do you have budget?
0:51:44
And do we have enough?
Francis Torres
0:51:46
Production of medical appointments, PICs to medical appointments continue to be paramount to us.
0:51:53
And so it is prioritized on a daily basis.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:51:57
Oh, since my time is short, I wanna say thank you.
Francis Torres
0:52:00
Thank you.