Last Tuesday, Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian announced a new pilot project to link data from local police, jail, hospital and other service providers to help identify “frequent utilizers” – people whose contact with law enforcement, healthcare and social services is recurring and often overlaps.
Middlesex County is one of three national pilot locations selected for the Data-Driven Justice project, sponsored by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. LJAF has committed $1.6 million for all three sites – some $600,000 locally – to securely identify frequent utilizers. The pilot program will evaluate innovative forms of crisis response to guide the frequent utilizers to the support they need, in hopes of avoiding either hospitalization or incarceration.
“MHA supports and applauds this much-needed effort to assist patients struggling with mental illness and addiction,” said MHA’s Vice President of Government Affairs Michael Sroczynski. “Our member providers are actively engaged across the state with local resources that offer support to individuals suffering from behavioral health issues. With the right medical and social services, many of these individuals can stay in the community and break the cycle of repeated stays in hospital emergency departments or jail.”