HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Part of the $240 plus million dollar budget passed last week included funding for Huntsville Police Department's mental health programs.
Huntsville City Councilman Bill Kling (Dist. 4) says capital funds are set aside for Wellstone Behavioral Health Center.
Kling said the monies will also be used to provide mental health training for police officers.
"Well if we're going to have growth in the city of Huntsville, then I think it's important that we have a police department that is able to keep up with the changing times, and mental health is certainly been an issue that police officers and the police department has dealt with, as well as nationally other police departments around the country," said Kling.
Kling said the funds include mental health personnel working with the police department.
About 10% of 911 calls across the country involve mental health situations. In a lot of cases, officers aren’t trained or equipped to safely handle those situations.
Huntsville Police Department representatives say they're taking some steps to try to equip officers to handle these calls the best way they can, and get people the help they need from professionals on site.
Officer Hollingsworth said HPD has been working on improving the way it handles mental illness situations since around 2004. But, the Department of Justice Valor Grant has helped them move much farther ahead with big plans for the future.
“Currently, after 5:00 Monday through Friday, our resources are very limited. Reality is, our main resources are going to be the Huntsville E.R. or the jail," said Hollingsworth. "Unfortunately, if you’re talking about suicide, if you’re being helped at an E.R., where you have trauma patients coming in, that’s going to upset you.”