- Mason City, Iowa Launches The “Community Crisis Response Team.” For KTTC, Addie McCabe reports on the new mobile crisis response team that will “help respond to 911 calls involving mental health, substance use, and emotional distress” across Cerro Gordo County. The team, composed of behavioral health experts, will provide on-site care to 911 calls for service with a “focus on de-escalation, support, and connection to services.” The team will operate from 10AM to 10PM as it launches with the expectation it will expand to 24/7 coverage.
Carl Ginapp, Cerro Gordo County Supervisor and former deputy fire chief, explained to the news station that he understands the vital role this team plays in a modern county’s public safety infrastructure: “In my previous work [at the fire department], I witnessed firsthand how individuals in crisis often lacked timely access to appropriate support…This effort will reduce strain in police, paramedics and other traditional first responders while helping individuals in crisis get the right kind of help, faster.”
- Albany, New York “Introduces Mental Health-Focused First Responder Team.” For 6News, Sean Cavanaugh reports on the city’s “new initiative to address mental health crises and other non-violent quality of life issues with the introduction of the Community Advocacy Response Team” that launched last month. The team, composed of trained mental and behavioral health specialists, “can respond independently to certain 911 calls… addressing situations such as mental health crises, substance use challenges, and homelessness.” Before the launch, 911 dispatchers received training “to determine whether a call requires police or CART intervention.”
Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox, explained to the news station that there is a deep “need for a third type of first responder… ‘we need to have folks who are social workers, folks who have a lot of experience, folks who can go not in a police or a fire uniform, but can go and try to solve another issue.” - In Seattle, The Community Assisted Response And Engagement Team Will “Double” In Size, City Allows “Unlimited Hiring” For Future Expansion. For KUOW, Amy Radil reports on Mayor Bruce Harrell’s “groundbreaking” expansion of the city’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement team, or CARE, which will now serve “as the primary dispatch for 9-1-1 calls” related to mental and behavioral health, “a doubling [of the] crisis response team” and coverage expansion “across the entire city and nearly around the clock,” and room for “unlimited hiring” as the team may need to expand further. Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes told the news station that “he supports the expansion of the CARE team… [because we] agree that policing alone cannot solve every challenge we have in this city.”
- In Indianapolis, “Clinician-Led Mental Health Response Team Expands.” For WFYI News, Benjamin Thorp reports that city leaders have approved an expansion of the Clinician-Led Community Response team, which when launched in 2023 was isolated to downtown, but has since proven to be a valuable third branch of the public safety infrastructure of the city and will “now cover roughly 63% of the city.” When someone calls 911 in the city, “a dispatcher asks them a series of questions, including whether they are in need of support from police, EMS, or mental health services.” If mental health services are needed, the team is deployed and “sends mental health professionals instead of police officers” to “assist with people who do not necessarily need to be entangled with law enforcement because they are having a mental health crisis” instead of “flooding” local jails, “emergency rooms, [and] hospitals” with people who can instead receive immediate care from the CLCR team.