Oklahoma Lawmaker Resubmits Police Telehealth Support Bill

Oklahoma lawmakers are moving forward with a bill that would allow police officers to access telehealth to virtually assess someone in crisis.

SB 7, introduced this month by State Senator Michael Bergstrom, would allow police officers “called to assist a medically stable individual suffering from a mental health crisis” to connect with a mental health professional via telehealth for an assessment. This would give police the opportunity to channel the person to an appropriate level of care.

State law currently mandates that police transport the patient to the nearest mental health facility for an in-person assessment.

“We’re already facing a shortage of law enforcement officers across the state. Pulling an officer from his or her normal duties to transport a patient is an inefficient use of resources when there’s a better option utilizing modern technology,” Bergstrom said in a press release issued this week, after the full Senate passed the bill and sent it to the House. “This is especially an issue in rural Oklahoma where officers and deputies may be in short supply, and available mental health facilities could be hours away.”

Bergstrom introduced the same bill last year, but the state Legislature shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic before the House could take up the matter.

The bill addresses a pain point in public safety and one cause of many civil disturbances: Guidelines that limit how police can address a situation that may not be a law enforcement issue. By adding connected health access to mental health services, police officers would have more options and would get the support they need to defuse certain situations.

When he was introducing his bill last year, Bergstrom said the idea came from a program launched roughly two years ago by the Grand Lake Mental Health Center, which equipped local police officers with iPads and told them to connect with counselors during mental health calls. Using the connected health platform, police and GLMHC were able to reduce the costly psychiatric inpatient center admissions from 402 in 2017 to only one in 2019.

“The telemedicine program already in place in northeastern Oklahoma is a shining example of how we can efficiently handle mental health calls while reducing patient trauma and allowing these individuals faster diagnosis and treatment options,” he said this year. “Not only is this a more compassionate and efficient option for the patient, but it would also greatly reduce the number of required taxpayer-funded mental health transports.”