Helping the Homeless: Bartlesville Police Department's Mental Health Team Aids People in Need

Agencies in Bartlesville are taking a proactive approach to helping homeless people. 

The police department has started a mental health outreach unit. An officer pairs up with a mental health expert to find people in need, respond to crisis situations, and offer help. The team has helped 54 people so far. 

Officer Sierra Compton and Cori Bryson keep their truck full of anything and everything needed for their daily calls.

“More Narcan, bug spray because bugs, then blood kits, first aid stuff,” said Officer Compton.

Once stocked, the two load up and hit the road.

“We constantly patrol," Officer Compton said. "We are not sit-down people.”

Officer Compton with Bartlesville Police and Bryson with Grand Mental Health are one of two Crisis Intervention Response teams. They began working together in December, responding to mental health calls, and doing general patrol. The team will come to areas all over town to talk to homeless people and see if they can help. They said they’ve seen a lot of success stories and it’s keeping them going.

So far, the two have met 54 people and found most of them are local to the area and all have different reasons they are homeless.  A lot of this is about building relationships.

“That’s one of our goals in this unit too, is to prevent arrests if we can.”

“We’ve been full probably for a year now," said Errol Hada. "One or two days we might have one or two beds available, but it soon fills up.”

Errol Hada is the director of Lighthouse Outreach Center, a solace for homeless people in Bartlesville to relax, worship, sleep, and eat. The crisis team calls him to find beds for people they meet on the street. 

“We take people that have drug and alcohol addictions, abuse situations, and financial difficulties," Hada said.

The crisis team took us to an apartment complex to meet a brother and sister, now with a roof over their heads after years of homelessness.

"If we didn't have them, we wouldn’t have this place," said the brother about the Crisis team.

For the two women hitting the streets daily to help, these success stories prove their work is paying off.