Three Things To Read This Week
1. Momentum Keeps Growing For Crisis Stabilization Centers
Dayton, Ohio. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recently praised the opening of a new crisis stabilization center in Dayton, saying: “What we’re seeing today really does make Montgomery County a leader in the state and it really is one more major step forward to achieve what we want to achieve in Ohio … to have a system if your son or daughter or a family member is in crisis, there is a place for that person to go.” As Sydney Dawes reports for Dayton Daily News, a person in the middle of a mental health crisis can be taken to the center, which is staffed with nurses, psychologists, and social workers, instead of, for example, the local jail. Dawes explained that the center is the final piece of a comprehensive, three-tiered model that “gives community members in crisis someone to call (the Montgomery County Crisis Now Hotline), someone to come to them (Mobile Crisis Response Teams), and somewhere to go (the new crisis center).”
Columbus, Indiana. As Mark Webber reported for The Republic, “a new crisis intervention center in Columbus opened to serve those experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis 24 hours a day, seven days a week [as] an alternative to the emergency room or jail[.]”. Patients will receive “triage and crisis intervention such as inpatient detoxification and rehabilitation; mental health and substance use disorder treatment services; peer support or recovery coaching; connections to shelters, food and clothing” and Narcan access. In the coming months, the center will launch its own mobile crisis responder team that can be deployed “at all times seven days a week to assist first responders when an individual cannot make it to a safe location to get care.”
“New York must open crisis stabilization centers: People in mental health throes need immediate help”—A local pastor in Queens, New York penned a powerful op-ed urging lawmakers to open crisis stabilization centers across the state following the killing of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who struggled with mental illness, on the subway earlier this month. From the op-ed:
“Miami Dade County and San Antonio have been pioneering full-spectrum crisis stabilization and care for two decades. Since 2017, Dutchess County New York has been home to a Crisis Stabilization Center which now includes forensic mobile crisis response teams and peer-led respite centers. They serve more than 5,000 people a year from eight counties and have diverted 25,000 days of psychiatric hospitalization. Surely we can do the same here… Create and staff the crisis stabilization centers that will help make New York a safer and more humane city again. Jordan Neely is dead. Let him be the last.”
2. Police Chief: “Looking Beyond A Traditional Police Response Is Critical For The Future.”
“Most response calls involving people with mental illness are not the result of criminal behavior, but of emotional crisis,” writes Robert Spinks, who is chief of police in Parsons, Kansas, in American Police Beat Magazine. Yet, mental health calls for service can be dangerous both for the person in crisis and the officer. As Chief Spinks explains, “mental health issues account for at least 1 in 4 and up to half of all fatal police shootings” and “80% [of police officers in a national survey] cited repeat contact with the same individuals suffering a mental health crisis as a top officer safety concern.”
While intensive officer training in crisis intervention is an oft-cited solution, Chief Spinks cautions that “many officers are not ready nor interested, or do not have the disposition to fully engage in this advanced specialist training. Just as many officers are not cut out to be a K-9 handler, bomb tech, SWAT or dive team officer, not all officers are cut out to be or are interested in taking on [Crisis Intervention Training][.]”
One solution the Chief points to are “mobile crisis teams [, which] utilize community-based mental health professionals to respond to individuals experiencing mental health crises. These teams typically do not involve the police initially, though police can be called upon when appropriate.”
This need to look beyond law enforcement to address acute mental illness with a “community-based and coordinated response” is critical because, as Spinks concludes:
“Mental illness and people in crisis exist in all communities, and it is not a crime. It is incumbent that police agencies and communities collaborate to address, respond to and seek new funding for sustainable mental health responses and services for those in need.”
3. NC Governor Roy Cooper Featured On NPR Praising Community Violence Intervention
NPR’s 1A podcast did an episode on “The Pragmatism Of Community Violence Prevention Programs,” featuring Governor Cooper, who issued an executive order earlier this year establishing the North Carolina Office of Violence Prevention. Here’s what the Governor had to say about CVI specifically:
“[W]hat we're hoping is that this office of violence prevention can help us get into communities, get at the root of violence, and make a difference. I've spent time going across our state, talking to people directly … We have seen things like the Gate City Coalition in Greensboro, we had Ingrid Bell come and talk to us about intervention programs that work to de-escalate [and] mediate conflicts in communities. She's put this organization in place [by] meeting people in their community who are most likely to be victims or perpetrators of gun violence [and] working to mediate their issues [and] to refer them to services. [O]ver the last three years, in [an] area that had seen a very high number of gun violence situations—they [Gate City Coalition] have been able to significantly reduce it ... We’re going to take this Office of Violence Prevention and help to replicate programs like these across our state, share data, make sure that people across North Carolina understand about evidence-based programs that are proven to work.”
The NPR episode also features Chico Tillmon and Professor Daniel Webster who both provide an excellent overview of CVI programs, their key components, and some of the evidence demonstrating their effectiveness. The full episode is highly recommended.
