A new mental health task force will better serve emotionally distressed people (EDPs) in Story County, said ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger.

The task force was formed last September to focus on EDPs. The task force is an off-shoot of the Crisis Prevention Team, which was created in 1998 to improve responses to EDPs and better diffuse volatile situations, he said.

Deisinger, leader of the task force, said the goal is to better aid mental patients who have “slipped through the cracks” of the Story County mental health system.

The task force itself doesn’t deal directly with the mentally ill, Deisinger said. Instead, it creates policies that increase networking between the mental health agencies and police departments of Story County.

Several groups, including the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, the ISU Department of Public Safety, Mary Greeley Medical Center and Story County Community Service, are involved in the task force, said Ames Police Cmdr. Jim Robinson.

“The task force was formed because [mentally ill] people were falling through the cracks in the system,” he said. Those networking policies have prevented the mentally ill from serving unnecessary jail time.

Some EDPs were jailed because police officers weren’t aware of their mental condition, he said. The mental health task force will inform the officers which criminals should be there and which criminals should receive medical treatment, Robinson said.

With better agency cooperation, fewer people will slip through the system, he said.

The task force has networked with various mental health agencies in the county, allowing for better correspondence and more immediate action to assist those in trouble, Deisinger said.

One goal is better treatment of mentally ill criminals, he said.

“Rather than go to jail, the EDPs get treatment for tangential criminal behavior. This is not in lieu of [criminal] correction, but to provide help to those with mental health problems. It’s better for the individual,” Deisinger said.

Robinson said the task force has already worked to prevent an EDP from going to jail. A complaint about an individual who was spying on someone with electronic equipment was received by Ames Police.

“Through the mental health task force, this individual’s medical agency informed us that he wasn’t taking his medication. We referred this individual back to his mental health agency and his medication was corrected,” he said. If it wasn’t for correspondence with the individual’s provider, Ames Police would have arrested him, Robinson said.