- “Philadelphia City Council paves way for $3 million funding bump for mobile crisis response services.” For WHYY, Philadelphia’s local NPR station, Nicole Leonard reports that “city council members and crisis providers say the additional money allocated in the new budget will address staffing issues and improve response times by establishing bridge teams to help cover high-volume periods. The $3 million boost is in addition to the $6 million dollars originally budgeted for the mobile program.” City Council Member Kendra Brooks put it more crisply: “Over 200 Philadelphians each day seek mental health support, and this funding will help ensure trained mental health providers will be able to respond to every call.”
- San Diego County Expanding Lauded Mobile Crisis Response Team With $4 Million Boost. As part of a nearly billion dollar overhaul of county mental health services, San Diego County announced a $4.6 million boost that “includes mobile crisis response teams that send mental health experts rather than law enforcement when appropriate to respond to someone in crisis… and covers walk-in crisis stabilization units that give people who are experiencing mental-health episodes a safe, calm place to get around-the-clock help rather than being taken to jails…”. These resources will continue to scale the success of the mobile crisis response program in San Diego County, which already boasts 16 teams—each composed of a mental health clinician and two other healthcare experts—that have responded to thousands of calls involving acute mental health crises since launching in 2021.
- Santa Cruz County Injects “$5.1 Million Over The Next Three Years … To Overhaul The Way Mental Health Crises Are Handled In The County” Including Making “Crisis Response Teams Available 24 Hours [Per Day].” For Santa Cruz Local, Jesse Kathan reports:
“The new program … will make mobile crisis teams available 24 hours within the next three years … The plan also calls for increased staff for the county’s mobile crisis response [, which currently includes] two non-law enforcement teams that respond to mental health crises … Both teams respond to psychiatric crises with a licensed mental health worker such as a therapist or a social worker along with non-licensed crisis workers. Both teams now respond to calls 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Within three years, crisis response teams are expected to be available 24 hours …
[Moreover,] a new dispatch system is planned to simplify crisis response. The new system will enable dispatchers to send a mobile crisis team if needed, regardless of which number people call. The improved dispatch system will also involve more cooperation between dispatchers, mobile response teams, and psychiatric facilities ….”