The Front Line Initiative integrates self-care prevention platform from CredibleMind into mental health support program in Tewksbury, Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, and Tyngsborough Massachusetts

JANUARY 11, 2021– Sausalito, Calif.   With citizens and police staff grappling with the confluence of a pandemic, civil unrest, and financial insecurity, the Front Line Initiative has expanded its spectrum of mental health services and programs to include CredibleMind’s self-care prevention platform.  The Initiative currently helps provide residents of Chelmsford, Billerica, Dracut, Tewksbury, and Tyngsborough, Massachusetts with access to mental health clinicians and peer support staff.  The Initiative, thus far, has saved millions of dollars in emergency room diversion and criminal custody diversion costs.  Now the Initiative wants to decrease the overall incidence by expanding from treating the crisis to preventing the crisis through self-care.

Facing access and stigma issues, self-care approaches have become a fundamental pillar of mental health, widening access to well-being strategies, and reducing the burden on the current care network.  Self-care emphasizes the active role of people in purposeful and continuous care, helping create more positive and resilient individuals.  CredibleMind brings to the Initiative the most comprehensive self-care solution, promoting mental wellness, preventing mental illness, and intervening at the beginning of an illness.  The customized platform provides education and supportive interventions to reduce or eliminate risk factors throughout the community and police force.

“Since 2016 we’ve been providing our communities with a direct connection to behavioral health and substance use services in a whole-person, trauma-informed way,” said Matthew Page-Shelton, M.F.A, M.Ed., LMHC, Regional Director of The Front Line Initiative. “The pandemic has only amplified how essential this support is and CredibleMind is a key component to broadening our reach and integrating prevention and early intervention strategies,” he added.

“We’re committed to pursuing every possible avenue to better serve the people in our community struggling with mental health and substance use disorders,” Tewksbury Police Chief Ryan Columbus said.

“Given recent tensions and the plethora of current health, social and economic stressors, it’s an important strategy to proactively support the mental health of both the police force and community served,” said Deryk Van Brunt, Ph.D., and CEO of CredibleMind.  “With the vast majority of people seeking mental health interventions on their own, CredibleMind provides the Initiative with a personalized approach for navigating thousands of evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention self-care strategies.”

###

About CredibleMind

CredibleMind’s mission is to help people flourish by optimizing their mental health, emotional wellbeing, and spiritual growth. A majority of adults in the U.S. have a mental or emotional health challenge and want assistance. However, only a small fraction of people receive professional services. While 75 percent turn to self-care first, we uniquely provide users with evidence-based self-help approaches and help users find the most appropriate resources and interventions in an intuitive and accessible format. CredibleMind is a branded, localized digital platform that broadens and deepens reach, enabling employers, insurers, healthcare providers, and community organizations to engage users, provide evidence-based support for mental health improvement, and refer users to organizational and local resources. CredibleMind provides a comprehensive upstream population-based mental health ecosystem, complete with analytics reporting on service needs, use, and outcomes. For more information visit us at CredibleMind.com.

About The Front Line Initiative

The Front Line Initiative is a regional police mental health collaborative comprised of the communities of Tewksbury, Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, and Tyngsborough working in conjunction with various community behavioral health partners.  Our commitment is to serve our communities and provide a direct connection to behavioral health and substance use services in a whole-person, trauma-informed way. Our focus is on supporting you the community; our approach to this is three-tiered: prevention, crisis response, and recovery. Our programming in these key areas provide access to clinical staff, peer support, and educational opportunities to all members of the communities we serve regardless of insurance, socio-economic status, gender identity, sexual preference, age, race, and there is not a requirement that you are police involved.

The Front Line Initiative was started in 2016 and went through an expansion and rebranding in March 2020 after receiving a grant from the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).  The Front Line Initiative is made possible by funding from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance as well as the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Addiction Services.