Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
About five years into its existence, CARES (Community Assistance Resources Emergency Services) continues to help members of the community in times of need, while alleviating some of the workload of emergency services.
Monday night, CARES Coordinator Mikaela Bixler and Resource Navigator Tanya Jackson gave an update on the CARES program to the Warsaw Common Council.
“The mission of CARES is to prevent crises and deflect community members from the criminal justice system, emergency medical care and other 911 services by assisting with connection to community resources,” Bixler said. “So, essentially, we focus on three things: prevention, deflection and connection.”
She said they provide immediate response to 911 calls when they are requested by law enforcement and first responders, conduct follow-up after 911 calls, coordinate the Kosciusko Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program and provide community education.
Jackson said they now have access to all 911 calls - police, fire and EMS - so they can go through them and see if there’s any areas where CARES can help.
“Our total calls so far for January and February are 349 between the two of us, so there’s a huge need,” she stated.
Bixler touched on the collaborations and education that they provide.
“Probably the biggest is the Crisis Intervention Team that we started. We host two 40-hour CIT trainings every year, and we have trained 88 first responders or law enforcement officers locally in that 40-hour training. That also includes jailers, dispatchers and some service providers, as well,” she said.
Last year they did official training with CIT International so they could do the Crisis Response and Intervention Curriculum. “So we are certified by CIT International to provide that curriculum in our area,” Bixler said. “This year, we also will be providing training on responding to family violence. That’s coming up in March to help law enforcement and first responders know more about how to handle those scenes appropriately.”
She said they also will be providing education on dementia and juvenile mental health.
Additionally, they do QPR (Question Persuade Refer) Suicide Prevention Training. Last year, Bixler said they received a grant from the K21 Health Foundation to provide QPR training to local first responder agencies. CARES is finishing up QPR training for all city of Warsaw employees and then will offer that quarterly for any new city employees.
For Mental Health Month in May, Bixler said they’ll be doing a couple QPR training sessions that will be open to the public.
Another thing CARES offers is car seat installations and checks for the community.
Jackson listed some of the community events and activities that they help with, which include Tools for School, Camp HERO, Family Safety Day, Project Ebenezer, Senior Expo, Mental Health May, Lincoln Elementary School Breakfast Buddy Program and Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory public education programming.
She said they both are on the Suicide/Overdose Fatality Review (SOFR) Team, Local Outreach Suicide Survivors (LOSS) Team, the Battle Buddy Program for veterans and more.
Bixler went over the top needs for the interactions they have with the community.
“We are kind of in the unique position where we get a lot of calls from community members and we try to track those needs that people report to us that are not being filled or need more attention,” she said. “So the top needs that were reported to us last year were connection to mental health care, connection to housing, emergency shelter, benefits navigation - so helping people get Medicaid or SNAP, different things like that; rent assistance, home healthcare or services for the elderly population - that’s a major one that we run into - as well as transportation, utility assistance and gas cards.”
Council President Jack Wilhite said when CARES was established “it was during a time period when there was a lot of stuff going on nationwide about defunding cops and then there was a lot of discussion about the police doing things that really isn’t police work, or that it took them away from a lot of the things that they should be doing as police.”
He said he remembers when then-Mayor Joe Thallemer wanted to put CARES together “and all these discussions were going on nationwide. That this was one of the things that we would really try to hone in on, and I guess my question is, do you feel like you have bridged that gap between healthcare workers and police? What kind of situations do you get into? What is helping to alleviate the police and yet serve the community?”
Bixler replied she didn’t want to say they’ve completely bridged the gap because there’s always room for improvement.
“But that’s what we spend a lot of our day doing. So police can call us out to any type of situation. If it’s a death that has occurred, police are investigating and figuring out what’s going on and making sure everyone’s safe, and they have us be with the family because we’re the mental health people, we’re trained in grief. We handle that side of it,” Bixler said.
CARES can be called out if someone is having a mental health crisis, and CARES can help connect them directly to mental health care. There are a few individuals who will call Bixler or Jackson if they’re having a panic attack or feel a mental health crisis coming, and they will go help them so law enforcement or firefighters don’t need to respond at all.
“Recently, we had some calls with some elderly individuals that were having some issues that ranged from dementia symptoms to having no food in their house. And so law enforcement responded first, but then they weren’t there very long, they made sure it was safe and we came up behind them and took over the call,” Bixler recalled.
Once CARES takes over a call, law enforcement or firefighters can move on to the next call.
Wilhite asked what the outcome would have been if CARES was not in place. Jackson said those 300-plus calls they had in January and February would have went to law enforcement, fire or EMS.
“So we’re alleviating a little bit of their work,” she said.
“And how would they have handled it?” Wilhite asked.
Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam said, “It alleviates us, so we get to go clear that call and go and take the next call, and stop the next drunk driver or go and work that next crash. So if (CARES) weren’t there, our response time on that next call would be even longer.”
He said Bixler and Jackson do a “fantastic” job. ‘Their hearts for this community are second to none. They love their job, they love what they do and they love giving back to our neighbors.”
Wilhite said the reason he asked those questions was because CARES was a relatively new department and it is in an area he believes is needed. He was just curious if it’s making the difference “we wanted it to.”
Beam replied, “Significantly.”
Councilman Juergen Voss said when the Deluxe Inn was closed, he was very impressed with how hard Jackson and Bixler worked to get those people staying there another place to live. “Just a wonderful program that, without it I just don’t know what people would do. Thank you for all you do,” he stated.
Mayor Jeff Grose said he appreciated their work as well.
For more about CARES, email CARES@warsaw.in.gov; follow on Facebook.com/CARES or visit the website at https://caresresources.com/
