Police social workers 'navigating' to fix drug, mental health crisis in NKY

Chelsea Chorley is still settling into her new job.

When telling us her official title, she answered with some hesitation — police navigator? police social worker?

Whatever her title may be, Chorley is confident in one thing: she has the chance to make a difference.

"I think it's the (Boone County Sheriff's Office's) willingness to be open to the social work end of things and acknowledging that mental health is a concern that needs treatment, that substance misuse is something that needs treatment and isn't always necessarily about the criminal end of things," she said.

Chorley is one of three new hires at the Boone County Sheriff's Office. They're called police navigators/social workers (PSWs), serving as "second responders" and helping residents affected by substance use disorders, opioid use disorders and/or mental health disorders in the community.

The program launched at the beginning of July. Chorley and her colleagues work within BCSO'S Criminal Investigation Unit. Major Philip Ridgell said the PSWs do not replace deputies but serve as an extension of the force, adding three additional personnel to a department already nearly 200 strong.

Ridgell said BCSO responds to several hundreds of thousands of calls for service every year. He estimates more than half of those are either drug or mental health related.

"Our deputies are busy. We prioritize calls. We prioritize follow ups. Sadly we recognize that some things do fall through the cracks," Ridgell said. "The resources that our deputies and the training that our deputies have gone through to help mitigate and take the purely law enforcement edge off of some of these calls has been successful in its own right. However, now being able to dispatch and utilize police social workers in the field will only strengthen that and help those who need it the most get the help that they seek."

While Ridgell said the drug epidemic is not new to the community, we reported on a recent spike. Five people overdosed in Boone County on July 16, bringing the total to 49 in less than 30 days, according to the Northern Kentucky Health Department.

The spike lead to the health department issuing its second OD alert this summer . Three of the most recent overdoses, which happened between July 15 and 16, were deadly.

Chorley said the county is dealing with a crisis and typically if someone is struggling with a mental health disorder they're likely also misusing drugs and opioids.

"Just in the short time being here I've the noticed the amount of suicides that Boone County has responded to," Chorley said. "Are these people that have previously been on a radar that we can help for future reference, getting them connected to services before it gets to that point or even thereafter, the families left dealing with this tragedy?"

The idea of police social workers is not new to law enforcement, nor to Northern Kentucky — the Alexandria Police Department is also working on a program — but it is new to Boone County.

Through the new program, PSWs will have dedicated time and resources to help connect residents to resources that already exist in the community. Examples of calls they may respond to include: supporting children who have been exposed to addiction, violence or trauma of a loved one, connecting older adults with resources to carry out daily activities, providing resources to those suffering from opioid use disorder such as rehab group suggestions or Narcan.

In the three weeks since the program rolled out, Chorley said her team is already on track for its first success story, having recently helped a chronically unhoused individual who had refused prior outreach from law enforcement.

"This individual, he struggled with mental health pretty severely," she said. "We were able to engage with this person, ultimately, able to use our resources to secure treatment for him and we'll begin working with him once treatment has been received to hopefully get him housing and get him stable and not out on the streets."

Though officials hope the program will help with the current crisis in the community, Ridgell said it is not a direct response. A similar effort to add one PSW was almost given the green light in 2018, but it was tabled after the Parkland High School shooting in Florida.

Boone County dedicated funds that would have been geared toward PSWs were instead directed to another possible solution: placing resource officers in every school building.

"We're happy we're back at this place and we were able to put three (PSWs) in our facility in conjunction with the fiscal court," Ridgell said.

The Boone County Fiscal Court is funding the program. A renewed need for it was identified in 2023 by a group of elected officials from the judicial system, jail, sheriff's office and Judge/Executive's Office.

Laura Pleiman, who serves as director of community services and programs at the Boone County Fiscal Court , ​ said the county could finally move forward after receiving the first round of opioid settlement funds.

"It's part of the national settlement with a variety of stakeholders who have been found to be found at cause or guilt of the opioid epidemic that happened throughout the county in the 20-tens and 20-teens," Pleiman said.

Boone County's portion is dispersed by the state of Kentucky. Pleiman estimates the funds will total more than $4 million over the next eight to 10 years.

"The (PSWs) are definitely there to serve as a resource for our officers and to the community to act as that connection and a navigator of what services already exist within our community and they can respond to non-law enforcement activities — really mental health and substance use crises that are happening within our community — with a different type of resource than we've maybe been able to respond with in the past," Pleiman said.