Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com


Livingston County Sheriff's Office this week announced the first Veterans Response Team in Michigan, a volunteer group of former military law enforcement members who will help steer local veterans to mental health services, housing and other needs.

Sheriff's Lt. Chad Sell says it started with repeated incidents involving a local vet off his meds, whom the department helped get assistance.

"It kind of opened our eyes, like hey, there's something bigger here that we needed to do. So, we started the conversation with Veterans Affairs and the Office of Justice, and they said there is a veterans response group, there's none in Michigan. And we would love to be part of setting it up. The sheriff supported it. He was on board 100 percent with that," said Sell.

"We've had a veterans court with Judge Murphy at the 53rd District Court for several years now. This just kind of turned into our ah hah, light bulb moment of hey, let's do something on the front end before they actually get to veterans court and see if we can help them that way as well."

Whenever police or EMS from the nine agencies in Livingston County have contact with a veteran, they'll fill out a QR code form linked below, and relay that information to the response team for follow up.

"We then analyze it, whether they need more police contact or a follow up from us, or if we just need to refer them to our local veterans office in Howell, or if they need bigger things down in Ann Arbor from the health care system," Sell added.

Over the past five months, the Veterans Response team already has assisted nearly 20 local veterans.