When Crisis Hits, Call This Woman

The Hingham 'Cast

If your child is threatening suicide, if someone in your family is abusing drugs, if you're struggling with a mental health crisis, Aileen Walsh can help. She's Hingham's new community crisis response clinician. She's embedded in the Hingham Police Department and brought to calls where a social worker might offer a different or added resource than a police officer.

She counseled terrified residents when a man barricaded himself in his apartment and fired at police officers in the Hingham Shipyard in 2020. She's gotten immediate help for teens threatening to hurt themselves or family members. She's kept drug abusers out of jail cells and gotten them into treatment just when it seemed all hope was lost. For families who don't want to call police for fear their crisis will end up in the police blotter, Walsh can help privately, without public records being kept.

#mentalhealth #suicideprevention #diversion #communitypolicing