What Happens When Police Respond to a Mental Health Call

How Do Police Respond to a Mental Health Call?

Whether it’s a suicide attempt or an in-progress mental health emergency, the police have a unique role in responding to these types of calls. It’s important to know what happens when police respond to a mental health call and how you can protect yourself.

Austin’s mental health first response initiative

Adding mental health services to the menu of options when calling 911 is a groundbreaking move in Austin, Texas. The program is administered by Integral Care, a local mental health authority in Travis County, Texas.

Integral Care’s Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (EMCOT) partnered with the city’s criminal justice system to provide emergency response for mental health concerns. The program started in 2013 with support from Medicaid waivers.

The program has a number of components, including a Crisis Intervention Center and a mobile clinic. In addition to providing services in the community, the center is a collaboration with the Austin Police Department and the Travis County Correctional Complex.

The MMHPI program is designed to connect people experiencing mental health emergencies with the right resources at the right time. The program also aims to reduce the amount of time people spend in the emergency room.

A new partnership between Integral Care, the University of Texas Police Department, and the Austin Police Department will allow for a more comprehensive response to mental health emergencies. A new Mental Health Assistance and Response Team (MHART) will dispatch mental health professionals along with plainclothes officers.

The program will launch as a pilot program for one to two years. During this time, the MHART will send trained mental health professionals along with UTPD officers.

New York City’s pilot program

Earlier this year, New York City launched a pilot program called B-HEARD to address mental health calls. The program allows dispatchers to route calls to teams of mental health professionals and EMTs instead of police. This allows for a more targeted approach to treating people in crisis. The goal of the program is to improve the safety of patients in high-risk situations and to reduce hospitalization rates.

In the first month of the pilot, 138 mental health emergency calls were eligible to be dispatched to B-HEARD teams. These calls represented about a quarter of the total mental health emergency calls in the area. However, B-HEARD did not respond to every call. The 911 operators routed the majority of mental health calls to police. There were a few cases when the officers were able to provide onsite help. The other cases involved people who had to be transported to a hospital.

New York City is working to expand the program, which will include a rapid response team. These teams will be staffed with seven licensed behavioral health professionals, and will be able to respond to high-risk calls in real-time. They will also use strategies such as de-escalation, right-fit service coordination, and situational risk assessment. They will also use real-time mental health information to help provide clients with the most effective care.

Limitations of the CAHOOTS program

Using non-law enforcement personnel to respond to a mental health emergency is a promising idea, but there are a few things to consider before implementing such a program. First, the best way to evaluate any new response is to research the pros and cons of each option.

The White Bird Clinic program in Springfield, Oregon, is a good example of a successful non-police approach. The program uses a two-person team, coordinated with the local police department, to assess the situation, provide resources, and de-escalate the situation.

This is no small feat. In the past year, the New York City Police Department received 179,569 mental health crisis calls. As the number of incidents increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for officers to effectively assist a person in distress.

Moreover, serving as a first responder to a mental health emergency comes with a significant social cost. The costs of responding to a mental health crisis include the time, money, and resources devoted to the effort.

A more practical approach to addressing mental health problems is to focus on prevention. For instance, by implementing a community response program, the police can use first responders who are trained in social services. They can also implement triage protocols and a trained police protection unit to ensure de-escalation.