NORRISTOWN — Ingrid Parker has wasted no time getting to work in the weeks since she began her new role as the Norristown Police Department’s director of police-mental health collaboration.

While the Norristown native has been with the municipal law enforcement agency since August 2020, her new full-time role will focus on revamping strategies surrounding mental health.

“I’m gathering information. I’m seeing what changes need to be made,” Parker told MediaNews Group. “I’m listening to the officers, and hearing their personal stories, and experiences, and finding out how I can best support them as first responders dealing with their own trauma and heartache and tragedies that they’re experiencing on a daily basis.”

After the Norristown Police Department came into grant funding under former Chief Mark Talbot’s administration, Parker was brought on as an at-risk youth coordinator, working with kids and teens to develop protocols “so they didn’t enter juvenile justice system.”

But her journey to this latest job has been a long one. Now living in East Norriton Township, Parker, 36, grew up in the county seat.

“My family is from Norristown and it’s my hometown. It’s where my heart is,” she said.

Parker recalled fond memories reading, riding her bike through town and spending time with friends. She graduated in 2003 from Norristown Area High School with dreams of becoming an obstetrician-gynecologist.

However, blood and grief associated with death were aspects of the profession that she remembered having difficulty with. After encountering a family member’s struggles with schizophrenia, she developed an interest in mental health.

“I wanted to find out more about it and how I could help people who were suffering from mental illness, what programs, what resources were available to them, things like that,” she said.

Parker strived to learn more and began her new path to becoming a mental health professional. Parker relayed her experience working with a child with autism, participating in an internship and holding other “various mental health positions.”

“It was those initial connections, and then just the knowledge I was gaining in the experiences through work or through my personal experiences,” she said. “I was just fascinated, and I saw the need for more I would say clinicians of color, and for more people who actually are connected to or have personal experiences of those who have mental health challenges.”

Parker eventually received a certification as a Licensed Professional Counselor in 2018 and obtained a behavioral specialist license in 2017.

Starting her previous role in the police department role in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, she saw an opportunity to do more for the community as well as the officers who swore to protect and serve.

“With COVID-19 happening and the increase in responses to mental health consumers from our officers, we saw the need for someone to be in that full time position to provide guidance to support to officers with their own mental health and to come up with strategic ways for them to engage with community members who were suffering from mental illness and that’s kind of what Chief (Derrick) Wood envisioned for me in this new role as the director of police, mental health collaboration,” Parker said.

The liaison position was curated for Parker, according to Norristown Police Chief Derrick Wood.

“One of the things I’ve seen over the years is an increase in police contact with people suffering from mental health crises, and also officer wellness as well has become a hot topic amongst law enforcements, and I’ve seen that in my 24 years of law enforcement — that often times we don’t prioritize mental wellness of our officers,” Wood said. “So I felt like I needed to bring somebody on board who not only could be a collaborator or a connector to people who need services on the street, but also within our departments as well.”

Wood sent out a tweet updating Parker’s professional role on April 11.

I am excited to announce that @Norristownpd has selected Ingrid Parker, M.A, LPC, LBS, to be the Director of Police-Mental Health Collaboration.

Congratulations, Ingrid. pic.twitter.com/8ZOGPAeAAv

— Chief Derrick E. Wood (@ChiefDWood) April 11, 2022

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Parker aims to expand her professional expertise to further assist the department’s 65 officers.

“I’ve always seen the need for mental health resources, and working with the police department, I had a chance to see it first hand how our officers are often— because they’re first responders— responding to these calls where they’re experiencing or engaging in contact with mental health consumers, or people who are undiagnosed,” Parker said.

Specific training tools included crisis intervention techniques and approaching situations in a trauma-informed manor. That could mean “speaking in low tones and using open body language” in a conversational rather than an “authoritative” manner.

“Asking what supports are needed … would help our officers work to better approach situations when they come in contact with someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis,” she said.

In implementing these strategies, Parker aims to add another tool for municipal police officers to use while responding to calls for service and on patrol.

“They’ll be better equipped to deal with it,” she said. “They will be trauma informed and culturally sensitive and understand the strategies that we have in place to get that resident some help.”

Along with her personal touch on the position, Parker emphasized the need to seek counsel from other mental health service-based organizations.

“As a police department, we are looking to collaborate with mental health organizations who are licensed and specifically designed to provide the mental health support,” Parker said. Although I’m a licensed professional, and I’m able to provide in-the-moment support, I do have to refer out, and I want to make sure that we are able as a police department to be able to have those collaborations, and those connections with local organizations to do the work on top of our officers being trauma informed and sensitive.”

“They’re officers, they are not therapists, they are not social workers,” she continued. “So we want to make sure that we are referring out and we are getting those people involved to best help our residents.”

Parker also underscored the importance of forming partnerships with these crucial agencies.

“I see with Mental Health Awareness Month … and Police Week coming up, I want to make sure that organizations are able to support our police officers and the things that they are experiencing because it’s important for them to be well so they can best serve our community,” she said.

Wood added he has plans to have green mental health ribbons adorning officers’ uniforms this month.

In addition to her work with the municipal police department, Parker was recently appointed earlier this year to the Norristown Area School District school board. But she stressed the importance of community involvement.

“This is not a sitting-behind-a-desk job,” Parker said.

Wood noted that the news of Parker’s new position has generated positive feedback from departments across Montgomery County and in Philadelphia.

“Mental health is a very important aspect of our interaction with the community so I think we need to bring someone on board to really be that connector, and collaborate, because I’m not an expert, and she is,” he said. “So I definitely like having her on my team.”

Parker expressed high hopes for long term impacts as she continues settling into her new role.

“I am looking to really increase the idea of police departments being trauma-informed and culturally sensitive when they are interacting with the community, and I want to make sure that individuals know that the Norristown Police Department is genuinely committed to what it is that they’re doing with Norristown residents,” Parker said.

“They are willing to undergo the training, they are willing to do introspection and find out exactly how their own trauma and triggers that are resulting from the job affect them in their work, and heal from them,” she continued. “I want the community to know that those are things that we are genuinely committed to doing.