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Tenafly officials discuss joining stateArrive Togetherco-response for mental health calls
Summary
Council members and public-safety leaders discussed joining New JerseyArrive Togetherprogram to provide a mental-health professional as a co-responder for some crisis calls and tasked staff to pursue details and partnerships.
Council members and town public-safety leaders on Feb. 18 discussed enrolling in the state-sponsored Arrive Together program and other options to get mental-health professionals to respond with or follow up on police and ambulance calls.
The discussion focused on whether Tenafly should join the regional Arrive Together program (free to municipalities, officials said) or develop a local social-worker or behavioral-health co-responder attached to the police department or the volunteer ambulance corps.
Councilwoman Lauren Dayton introduced the item as a way to add a qualified mental-health professional to some emergency responses: "What this is is a qualified, either psychologist, psychiatrist, social health worker who deals with mental health calls," she said, describing situations such as suicide attempts, severe depression and bipolar episodes. Dayton asked the borough administrator and police chief to research options and costs.
Chief Robert (police chief) told council members Arrive Together is run through a new Office of Alternative and Community Responses in the New Jersey Attorney Generals office and that other towns partner to share resources. "It's sponsored by the state of New Jersey," he said, and described three service elements: in-person co-response when a clinician is available, close-in-time follow-up after an incident, and training (CIT) for officers. He said the program is generally free to the municipality and funded by state, county and grants, but small towns sometimes must join a regional partnership to qualify. On involuntary psychiatric transports, the chief said: "For involuntary commitments, they go to Newbridge." He added that voluntary transports may go to the facility the person requests.
JP Padetta of the Tenafly Volunteer Ambulance Corps (TVAC) said the priority is safety for patients and responders and suggested adding resources on the borough website and coordinated screening: "For us, it's really about ensuring, you know, our members and obviously the patient's safety," he said, and noted residents can call the statewide 262 mental-health line for screening.
No formal ordinance or vote was taken. Instead council members directed borough staff and police leadership to pursue the Arrive Together application and to explore co-responder options, CIT training opportunities and possible regional partners. Administrator David and the chief were asked to report back with details and costs.
Next steps noted during the meeting included contacting the county mutual-aid regions and the AGoffice representative and determining whether a local social-worker (a borough employee or volunteer) could be trained to serve as a co-responder.
The conversation also covered limits: the chief cautioned that clinicians cannot always accompany officers (coverage is limited by staffing and hours) and that some crises require medical treatment or involuntary transport.
Council members and staff said they will pursue Arrive Together enrollment and local training opportunities and will return findings to the council for a possible follow-up agenda item or contract decision.
