For Brandon Miller, the road to the work he’s doing now started back in school.
Way back in school.
“I have always had a concern and passion for people,” says Miller. “Even in elementary school, I was concerned about other people’s welfare – ‘Are they included? That sort of thing. I’ve just always been more focused in that direction.
That passion runs like a thread through his work today as a mental health clinician. His CV also includes a stint as a reserve police officer for the Enterprise Police Department.
So it makes sense that Miller would be interested in the intersection of policing and mental health – more specifically, the times when a police officer is called upon to deal with a person suffering from a mental health crisis. For years, Miller has not only been a member of crisis intervention teams that respond to people experiencing mental health emergencies, he’s also worked to train law enforcement officers, who are often the first responders in these situations.
Miller’s work has not gone unnoticed: Earlier this year, he was named Behavioural Health Practitioner of the Year at the Northwest Regional Intervention Team Conference in Seaside. The conference was organized by the Oregon Center on Behavioral Health and Justice Integration, a statewide program run in partnership with the Oregon Health Authority that provides training and technical assistance to behavioural health professionals and law enforcement officers who interact with people with serious behavioural, neurocognitive, or intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Chances are that a police officer will come into contact with someone with a serious behavioural health condition, and probably sooner rather than later: Nearly half of the people in local jails are in need of mental health services. About 60% have a substance abuse disorder.
The problem, says Miller, is that officers don’t get much training, at least initially, in how to deal with someone with a serious behavioural health condition. But in rural areas of Oregon, officers may be the first person on the scene to work with someone in crisis.
“It’s really like police officers becoming social workers in a lot of ways,” Miller said.
The idea of crisis intervention teams – which typically pair a mental health professional with a police officer – has been on the rise since the 1980s, Miller said.
In many ways, he said, an incident in Memphis, Tennessee, helped spur the development of these teams.
In this case, Miller said, a call went out for a wellness check on an individual. Law enforcement officers responded.
“And things went bad,” Miller said, “and they had to use deadly force.”
The victim’s family raised awareness of the issues surrounding law enforcement officers dealing with people with behavioural problems. That led to what’s known as the “Memphis Model”, which worked to integrate behaviour health workers with law enforcement officers – a model that has evolved into crisis intervention teams.
It’s a model, says Miller, that “creates a bridge between law enforcement officers and behavioural health workers so that we can have better outcomes for the consumers, better outcomes for the community, better outcomes for the officers. Everybody walks away in a better place.”
A voice for the vulnerable
There was a time when Miller thought his career would take him to the law enforcement side of these crisis intervention teams.
When he started volunteering as a reserve officer with the Enterprise Police Department, he thought he would get a degree in criminal justice.
But then he started working at the Pioneer Guest Home in Enterprise, a residential treatment facility for people with both physical and persistent mental health issues who need some help with daily care, but can be independent at times.
Miller loved the work – and he loved the residents.
“Working at the Guest Home, getting to work with a population of people who were just great people” was a great experience, he said. “And to be able to see little improvements in their lives was pretty awesome. I just love being able to look after vulnerable people and to be able to give them a voice and support them was a pretty great experience.”
And it changed Miller’s life too.
He switched his studies to psychology and earned a bachelor’s degree. He became an administrator at the Pioneer Guest Home. Five years ago, he went back to school, earned a master’s degree in social work and became a therapist at the Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness in Enterprise.
In October, he started his own business, The Bearded Social Worker LLC. He still contracts with the Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness, providing outpatient mental health and substance use therapy and continuing the Crisis Intervention Team program. He also sees clients as part of his private practice.
He also has another business, Miller and Berry Behavioural Health Training and Consultation, with business partner Quinn Berry. The company conducts behavioural health training, consults with law enforcement and runs a three-day, two-night retreat called COP Camp.
In Wallowa County, most officers have gone through the training, Miller said – and some officers have taken the training more than once to keep their skills sharp.
“It’s a very valued program here in our county, and it’s great that our officers see the value in it and participate in it very well,” Miller said.
And he’s grateful for the strong relationship between county law enforcement and mental health workers.
If therapists feel they need law enforcement’s presence during a call for the safety of all parties, they can ask officers to respond to the scene. “Or if they’re on a call and they say, ‘We could really use mental health (professionals),’ they’ll contact us and we’ll respond.”
Because of the relative isolation and size of Wallowa County, instances where both a mental health professional and a law enforcement officer respond to the same situation are generally rare – but both parties know they can reach out to the other if they need help.
“When we get calls, especially from law enforcement, we respond quickly because we know when they call, they’ve exhausted all their options,” Miller said.
It works the other way too: “The same thing happens when we call them. They know we’re calling for a good reason and they’ll be there.
It’s a testament to the trust that’s been built between law enforcement and behavioural health professionals, he said.
“We probably have some of the best relationships between law enforcement and behavioural health and the hospital,” Wallowa Memorial said. “And we’re fortunate enough to be small enough that we can actually have good relationships with each other. That makes a big difference.”
As Miller’s award shows, others throughout the Northwest have noticed what’s going on with crisis intervention in Wallowa County.
“In our county, it’s a balance of having good people – and then also having very creative and innovative agencies that are working to think outside the box about how we can better engage people. … We’re quite unique in having the agencies and the leadership that we have in our community.
And being part of a smaller community helps, he said.
“We’re all here to help each other,” he said. And when team members respond to help people in the midst of a mental health crisis, “we put a little more into it because they’re our neighbours.”
