In an effort to help people with mental illness get treatment instead of winding up in jail, Victoria County commissioners are expected to approve a partnership between the sheriff’s office, the Gulf Bend Center and other law enforcement agencies across the region.
Tuesday, Victoria County commissioners are planning to approve an agreement that would allow the sheriff’s office to work with the Gulf Bend Mental Health Task Force. In recent years, both the sheriff’s office and police department in Victoria have partnered with the Gulf Bend Center and law enforcement in surrounding counties to help people experiencing mental health crises.
“Mental health … is an issue that everybody is still trying to grasp,” said Commissioner Kevin Janak. “We’re doing this as a community as well as individually.”
Across the nation, an estimated 2 million people with mental illness are booked into jails each year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The vast majority of them aren’t violent criminals but nevertheless end up locked away in jails when they don’t receive proper care.
But local law enforcement and community health providers have put a heavy focus on preventing that from happening. In recent years, the Gulf Bend Center, which provides treatment to people who have serious and persistent mental illnesses like major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, has advocated for more funding to tackle the problem.
“This is really an issue that I wish the state would assist us with,” said Janak. “But we try to do the best that we can, and the staff is going the best that we can.”
