The city of Bethlehem is an urban community located in eastern Pennsylvania with a population of 75,500.
In 2020, Bethlehem Health Bureau and Bethlehem Police Department launched the Community Connections Partnership to better serve residents with mental health, substance use disorders, and other unmet social service needs.
The City of Bethlehem explains their implementation of crisis response:
As part of this program, social workers (SW) and Community Mental Health Specialists (CMHS) receive referrals from police when an officer identifies a social service need and/or a mental health need in the community. The SW/CMHS worker connects with the client either via a phone call, home visit, or a co-response in the field to assess the clients and get them connected to services. The Community Connections Program began as a small pilot but expanded to the entire police department due to its success. The data collected demonstrates that when someone is connected with a SW/CMHS, they are about 90% likely to accept treatment services and remain in treatment for at least 30 days. The Bethlehem Health Bureau has identified gaps in services for different populations and have created a focus group/community partners advisory board to develop a strategic plan to address these disparities. Cohort 2022.
Program Goals
- Enhance police response in the community with co-response when police encounter an individual or multiple people with a social need and/or mental health crisis
- Decrease the recurring encounters/interactions with police and people with mental health crises
- Identify and bridge the gaps in services that community members encounter every day
Key Partnership Organizations
Leigh County | Northampton County | City of Allentown
Along with a host of local agencies and organizations who focus on crisis, children and youth, mental health, aging, rehabilitation and recovery, and the unhoused.
Learn More
City of Bethlehem Police Community Outreach
Lehigh Valley News: Bethlehem Looks to Expand Program
So what we’re trying to do with this program is stop the vicious cycle where people get involved in the criminal justice system, and unfortunately, people end up getting arrested when, at the heart of the issue, it’s a social service need that could have been addressed. (Lehigh Valley News, December 2022)
Michelle Kott
Bethlehem Police Chief