At tonight’s meeting, Linda Boyd, RN, BSN, MN, LAC Department of Mental Health Program Head for the Law Enforcement Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams, will speak on the various psychiatric mobile response teams in the South Bay. This will be an opportunity to learn about the various psychiatric emergency teams in our area, how families should connect and interact with the teams. Ms. Boyd has extensive experience with these type of emergency response teams that are often called by family members in time of crisis. You won’t want to miss this important presentation on a service many of us have used and may use in the future.

The meeting begins at 7:30 PM, Monday, July 21 in the Fellowship Hall at First Lutheran Church, 2900 Carson Street in Torrance.

Linda Boyd was the co-creator and co-founder of four collaborative teams, which combines a law enforcement officer and a mental health clinician responding to 911 calls involving the mentally ill or persons in an emotional crisis:

• LA County Sheriff, Mental Evaluation Team (MET)
• LAPD, Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team (SMART)
• Long Beach PD, Long Beach Mental Evaluation Team (LBMET)
• Pasadena PD, Homeless Outreach and Psychiatric Evaluation Team (HOPE)

Ms. Boyd is also Program Manager for the PEl School Threat Assessment Response Team (START). She holds a Master in Nursing Degree from UCLA with an emphasis on Community Mental Health. Ms. Boyd has conducted numerous presentations, training sessions and workshops on Critical Incident and Disaster Stress, Suicide Intervention, Mental Health 101 for Law Enforcement, as well as the Development of Collaborative Law Enforcement Mental Health Teams.

The Caring and Sharing Support Group meeting will be 6:00 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. in the Fireside Room at First Lutheran Church immediately before the general meeting. Caring and Sharing is a support group for family members of persons with a severe mental illness. We look forward to seeing you.