The Norwalk Police Department has hired a clinician to be embedded in the department and to work in tandem with officers on cases that may benefit from additional support.
According to the department’s statement, clinician, Alexandra Fitzner, “will work to expand community policing initiatives by creating a holistic approach to life-saving supports and resources for all members of the Norwalk community, with an emphasis on helping vulnerable populations.
The position is being funded by $216,000 allocated from federal funds from the US Bailout Act, according to city documents. The city hired the new clinician in part because of the success Stamford Police have had working with the Recovery Network of Programs since incorporating a social worker if its own last year.
“In our very first year of operation, we served 300 unduplicated people, 800 care interventions/connections, and with a 20% reduction in repeat offender type calls to the police department,” Jennifer Kolakowski said Thursday, network executive director. . She added that the numbers were “very, very significant”.
At the time the position was approved in Norwalk, Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik said: ‘A lot of these people, as we know, are frequent callers or guests of the police, so to speak, and we have struggling to deal with them and unfortunately the services just aren’t there.
Community Policing Sgt. Sofia Gulino praised Fitzner for her work connecting people with services in the weeks since she started with the department. According to Gulino and Fitzner, most of Fitzner’s time has been working to connect people who need help with the resources and community groups that are actually there. The individual may not be aware of the resources available, and connecting with the right group and program often requires hours of time and effort that people in crisis are not equipped to expend, which Fitzner manages to the place.
“Officers currently at the police academy receive mental health first aid, which is an eight-hour program,” Gulino said. “Alex comes to us with a diploma, that is to say years of experience, to which our agents do not have access. So they’re trained to some extent, but developing the partnerships and spending time on referrals and understanding diagnoses behind the scenes, that’s not something that agents are trained to do, and we don’t expect either until they do.
Fitzner added that the police had a different goal than hers. Finding resources and connecting people “sometimes takes hours of work. And it’s not something the police are trained to handle and it’s not their job either. They are here on criminal matters,” Fitzner said.
“It could be Sophia and I working together in tandem to say, ‘how can we help this person when they’re too distraught, they’re going through everything they’re going through in life to get them to this point?’ Where I might need to be the one waiting for an hour with someone trying to find a resource for them,” she said.
As she continues to focus primarily on follow-up work, Fitzner also has the ability to attend on-site issues or speak with officers who need guidance on how to handle a particular situation. Gulino said the program is growing “in tandem” with the needs of the police department. She said follow-up work is often more effective than on-site outreach because people need time to calm down and become more receptive to help.
Fitzner also needs time to assess the situation, see what resources the person already has and identify gaps that can be filled with community services, she said.
“For every person we are connected to, there is a whole family behind that might need services,” Gulino said. “So you have someone with a psychotic disorder. It’s not just this person. There may be a family member, children involved, their parents — who are victims. There’s so much more, and one case is no magic bullet.
Fitzner said she spent her first few weeks on the job building connections with the community and service providers and becoming familiar with the resources available to facilitate the best connections for her cases. She has experience in a law-related environment, having worked in the outpatient treatment of sex offenders on parole and probation, she said.
“I develop my systems,” Fitzner said. “The biggest gap I’ve found is currently within the police department itself. It’s just us looking for a system to make sure I get the right referrals so I know what people need of these services. I have not found a situation where there has not been a provider that offers the necessary services. They are all there. Finding the right place to meet basic needs, mental health , to drug addiction – it’s all there.”
As the program continues at Norwalk, Gulino said the department is already considering expansion.
“We are also hiring another part-time social worker, who will also help with some of these extended hours,” Gulino said.
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