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Holiday and Mill Creek begin shared mental-health social-worker coverage; new liaison describes duties
Summary
Holiday and Mill Creek are sharing a licensed clinical social worker to respond to crisis and welfare calls with police; the position will split time between jurisdictions, respond on-scene with officers and provide follow-up case management.
Holiday and neighboring Mill Creek have started a cost-shared mental-health liaison program, the council heard Sept. 18, as officials introduced a licensed clinical social worker who will respond with officers to mental-health and crisis calls and provide case follow-up.
Staff explained the two cities split the position (two-thirds Mill Creek, one-third Holiday). The new liaison self-identified as Craig Golden and said he previously worked in the Salt Lake City Police Department mental-health unit and in similar roles in Flagstaff and other special districts. "I'm a licensed clinical social worker," Golden said, and described a range of prior experience including child protective services, hospital psychiatric social work and police social work.
Golden told the council he will always respond to crisis calls with an officer and that the unified model emphasizes follow-up as much as first response. He described one success in which sustained engagement with a person who was repeatedly calling 911 led to stabilization, medication adherence, and dismissal of related justice-court charges after treatment and compliance.
Council members asked whether a single shared social worker will be enough to meet demand; Golden said coverage is challenging and that he is onboarding interns to assist with case management and follow-up. He also said current practice routes mental-health calls to a sergeant if the liaison is unavailable so cases are triaged and assigned.
The program grew from a prior council agreement to cost-share a mental-health position with Mill Creek and, per council comments, is part of a broader effort to reduce unnecessary armed-officer-only responses to behavioral-health crises.
