Warrington Township Police Department is the latest Bucks County community to add a mental health professional to its law enforcement team.
Katrina Mattioni, whose official title is Human Services Co-Responder, also provides services to neighboring municipalities, Warminster and Warwick.
As a trained social worker, Mattioni is qualified to respond to calls where her skills are needed to support police, and direct people in crisis to mental health resources and away from entering the criminal justice system, unnecessarily.
“It’s a testament to the amazing job done every day by the people in our Human Services Division that we have managed in just three years to bring the Co-Responder Program to all regions of Bucks County,” said Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marsegila, a licensed social worker, in a statement.
“We are all incredibly thankful to our Co-Responders for the important work they do, and to our police officers and municipal leaders for welcoming these important efforts into their communities,” she noted.
Currently, 18 Bucks County police departments include a co-responder.
Bensalem Police Department was the first law enforcement agency to join the program in 2020. In the first six months, co-responders had contact with 132 people across 188 calls, the county reported, and spent about 185 hours with those in need of services.
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