In the small city of Hogenville, KY (population 3,300), approximately 20% of phone calls involve someone with behavioral health issues. While this is a small sample size, police departments across the country are recognizing that they need help from social workers to properly address the needs of their community. They are slowly integrating social workers into their teams to handle complex social issues, such as mental health crises, domestic violence, substance abuse, and homelessness, reducing emergency calls over time.
While police departments are working in the right direction, progress is slow. The risk of being killed while being approached or stopped by law enforcement is 16x higher for people with untreated mental illness. Social workers are providing true life-saving services, and they need the tools to make their work with police departments most effective. Case management software can step into this role, providing clear communication, data-driven decisions, customizable assessments, and more, elevating the ability to provide hopeful outcomes.
Why Social Workers Are Essential in Police Departments
When an emergency happens, 9-1-1 lines link individuals to the most appropriate emergency services, including the fire department, medical services, or the police department. Law enforcement are often the first to arrive for a mental health crisis. A person could be experiencing heightened anxiety, paranoia, or psychosis. In these situations, a police officer is not usually equipped with the skills needed to de-escalate the situation.
These terrifying circumstances can lead to the worst-case scenario. 25% of fatal police shootings involve someone with an untreated mental illness. A social worker uses their expertise to help calm the individual, provide immediate support, and connect them to necessary services.
Law enforcement is often the first responder to situations that are social or mental health crises rather than criminal incidents. Social workers bring specialized skills to de-escalate situations and provide immediate support.
Notable Police Social Work Programs Leading the Way
Across the United States, there are incredible programs that are changing the way police handle mental health cases through social workers. These pioneering models highlight the importance of structured case management to achieve impactful results. Here are a few examples that show how hopeful the future can be for individuals with mental illness.
- CAHOOTS Program (Eugene, Oregon): Operated by White Bird Clinic, CAHOOTS dispatches a medic and a crisis worker instead of police for non-violent mental health crises, reducing unnecessary police intervention. CAHOOTS only calls for police backup 0.625% of the time, proving the effectiveness of mental health professionals in de-escalation.
- STAR Program (Denver, Colorado): The Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program sends mental health professionals and paramedics to low-risk emergency calls related to mental health, poverty, and substance abuse, significantly lowering arrest rates.
- LAPD SMART Program (Los Angeles, CA): The Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team pairs LAPD officers with mental health clinicians to respond to crisis calls involving potential mental health issues. LAPD has three other programs to boost their response to mental health crises, including CAMP, the Triage Desk, and Administrative-Training Detail.
- B-HEARD Program (New York City): The Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division deploys mental health professionals and EMTs instead of police to handle 911 calls for mental health crises.
These programs showcase the potential for transforming public safety responses. However, their success depends not just on innovative staffing but also on the underlying technology that supports social work case tracking, data sharing, and impact measurement.
Challenges Social Workers Face in Law Enforcement Settings
Social workers operate in all kinds of settings, including hospitals, schools, nonprofits, community centers, and more. However, their goal is always to advocate, empower, and care for their clients. This can be a clash with a police officer's training, which is centered around authority, enforcement, and control. Learning to work together can be challenging, and this can be stressed further due to:
- Fragmented Communication: Lack of unified systems between police, social services, and healthcare providers.
- Privacy and Compliance: Managing sensitive data while complying with HIPAA and CJIS regulations.
- Case Tracking: Absence of standardized processes for tracking interactions, interventions, and outcomes.
- Manual Documentation: Excessive time spent on paperwork reduces time for direct service delivery. Officers spend three hours or more per shift on paperwork on average.
Transforming Police Social Work with Technology
PlanStreet Case Management Software bridges the divide between police departments, social workers, and other professionals working together to protect the community and those with mental illness from harming themselves and others. These features give professionals the tools needed to effectively perform daily tasks.
Centralized Case Records
One of the most time-consuming jobs for police administration is managing and delivering case records. With case management software, all notes, files, and messages are stored in one place, so it's much easier for police to find the details they need fast. A platform like PlanStreet offers secure data management with role-based admission, ensuring confidentiality and streamlined access. It helps social workers and police officers find the information they need faster, allowing them to work more efficiently. Additionally, it helps prevent the manual errors notorious with paper files.
Interagency Collaboration
PlanStreet helps police departments, social workers, mental health professionals, and social services agencies work together better. They can track case history, progress notes, and status changes in a single timeline, making it easier to combine their efforts over a shared goal. Additionally, detailed information stored over the cases' entire lifetime creates the transparency needed for compliance audits and grant requirements.
Task Automation and Reminders
PlanStreet automates follow-ups, service referrals, and compliance check-ins, minimizing workloads for secretaries and other members on admin teams. It also helps make sure nothing falls through the cracks with notifications. PlanStreet always has the most up-to-date information, so everyone stays on the same page, helping keep critical deadlines. Additionally, tasks such as document creation, reporting, and workflow management are often automated, helping everyone do more with their day.
Custom Assessments and Risk Scoring
Social workers use assessments to understand the needs of each client and start service planning. With PlanStreet Mental Health Case Management Software, social workers can implement standardized or customized assessments with tools such as:
- JSON Powered Form Builder: Design forms using a drag-and-drop interface.
- Conditional Logic: Follow-up actions can appear or change based on prior responses.
- Configurable User Interfaces: Interfaces are adaptable, so organizations can adjust how assessment results are displayed and used.
Additionally, PlanStreet facilitates systematic evaluation and scoring of client risks. With integrated risk assessment features, case managers can register clients, conduct needs assessments, and adjust interventions based on individualized scoring. This ensures that risk levels are continuously tracked and factored into overall case plans.
Reporting & Compliance
Social workers in police departments must comply with state, federal, and local laws that require them to report any evidence of abuse or neglect. PlanStreet Analytics and Reporting Software leaves a paper trail of all work done on a case. This data can then be easily converted into reports for audits and any other legal needs.
Some of the types of reports that PlanStreet can help with include:
- Crisis intervention reports
- Comprehensive client assessments
- Domestic violence and sexual assault reports
- Shift summaries
- Quality assurance and audit reports
PlanStreet in Action: Life Connections of the Carolinas
Life Connections of the Carolinas is a nonprofit that helps keep kids out of jail and families connected. They provide programs and services designed to develop adolescents and strengthen homes. With all of these programs, they needed a single platform to centralize all of the information and start utilizing workflow management.
Now, they use PlanStreet Child and Family Case Management Software to:
- Streamline program admission
- Monitor funding sources
- Collecting required documentation from clients faster
"We love [PlanStreet]. We think it's fantastic." --- Robert Daughtridge, Director of Development and Marketing | Life Connections of the Carolinas
Benefits of PlanStreet for Police Departments and Social Workers
Approximately 80% of police work provides social welfare services. Case management technology improves police-social worker partnerships, allowing them to share information, case notes, and updates in real-time. PlanStreet benefits law enforcement social work programs through:
- Enhanced documentation and case history tracking, so that social workers can see what has been done already (and how to move forward).
- Improved cross-agency collaboration through secure yet easily accessible digital case notes and documentation.
- Analytics and reporting tools for social services that provide insights driven by data to create case plans and schedule services that work best for the client.
- Automated scheduling features to reduce the administrative burden on already busy team members.
- Strengthened compliance with privacy and compliance guidelines under HIPAA and CJIS.
- Easier grant reporting for social programs through grant management software.
Drive Innovative Social Work Programs in Law Enforcement With PlanStreet
Law enforcement can provide a better mental health crisis response with social workers at their side. PlanStreet powers law enforcement social work programs, providing easy-to-implement tools that strengthen interagency collaboration. From case tracking to compliance reporting, PlanStreet empowers social workers embedded in law enforcement to make a lasting impact.
Learn how PlanStreet can benefit your agency and schedule an introductory call with our team today.
Explore Related PlanStreet Solutions