Possibilities of Progress: Integrating Crisis Care Infrastructure into the Philadelphia Police Force and the United States

Nana AmaAddo

May 15, 2021 |

FunTimes Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom

To increase the safety of people in mental health crisis, Philadelphia police train most officers in crisis intervention tactics and try to build better-informed responses into 911 operations. But problems persist. In the U.K., similar challenges – also disproportionately affecting Black people – have been addressed with a nationwide Crisis Team UK program. Calls for help can be answered by teams integrating multiple talents, from psychiatry to social work. Though progress has not been uniform nationwide, satisfaction and safety have improved, according to activists and a small survey.

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Philly Under Fire Episode 6: The Golden Hour

Jo Piazza

May 13, 2021 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

In Philadelphia, public agencies and funding serve homicide victims' families. But grassroots groups target the enormous gaps in services for the survivors of gun violence, people whose unaddressed needs – medical, financial, and especially emotional – can fuel cycles of retaliatory violence. Because trauma and anger increase the risks for future violence, groups like The ECO Foundation and Northwest Victim Services provide both immediate responses, starting bedside in hospitals, all the way to long-term care and counseling, plus preventive counseling and services to make for healthier communities.

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'We're dealing with victims': Ride-along offers glimpse at anguished work of crisis teams

Will Cleveland

May 11, 2021 |

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Rochester, New York

Rochester's Person In Crisis team, launched in response to the death of Daniel Prude in police custody during a mental health crisis, began a six-month pilot project in January. PIC uses a "co-response model" of crisis intervention, sending social workers alone or with police, as first responders or called in by police at a scene, to connect non-violent people with needed services. PIC teams work 24/7, replacing or supplementing police on calls where help, not arrest, will resolve the problem, and empathetic conversation can work better in places where distrust of the police runs high.

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Program in Oregon provides blueprint for San Diego mental health services

Jared Aarons

May 10, 2021 |

KGTV-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, San Diego, California

As San Diego County ramps up its CAHOOTS copycat – a mental health crisis response that sends specialists other than police to non-violent calls, similar to the long-running exemplar in Eugene, Oregon – it's beginning to see positive results: 34 calls since January, with only one needing police. But it probably needs to change how people can ask for its help. The San Diego Mobile Crisis Response Team has a phone number separate from the 911 system. Eugene's police chief says calls to 911 in Eugene offer help from police, fire, or CAHOOTS, a persistent and explicit reminder to the public of the alternative.

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Failure to Thrive: NYC's $100 Million ‘Diversion Centers' for Mentally Ill Sit Empty or Barely Used

Greg B. Smith Reuven Blau

May 09, 2021 |

The City |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Despite committing hundreds of millions of dollars to programs that make New York City's emergency response to mental health crises less punitive, a pattern of over-promising and under-delivering, plus pandemic snarls, kept the programs from getting off to an effective start. Two "diversion centers" where police could bring people in crisis, as alternatives to jail or hospital emergency rooms, either sit empty or have served only a tiny number of people. A program to send counselors with police on calls never got off the ground. In its place is a non-policing team that is having trouble recruiting EMTs.

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Outreach officers treat homelessness as a symptom, not a crime

Stephanie Casanova

May 01, 2021 |

Arizona Daily Star |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

Tucson Police Department's Homeless Outreach Team operates on the premise that even though many want to see police excluded from any role in dealing with homelessness, residents still call 911 and demand a police response. So the team, working with the city's homeless services counselors, can usually turn such contacts into an offer of help. Its officers are trained more and have more time than patrol officers to talk to people and determine their needs. Tucson's unhoused population surged in 2020, and police helped hundreds get housed or get other services without resorting to arrests and jail.

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Police visit patients, offer rides to mental health treatment

Stephanie Casanova

April 30, 2021 |

Arizona Daily Star |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

When people refuse mental health care while under court orders to get treatment, Tucson police send a mental health support team to take the people to crisis observation clinics or hospitals. The teams have the training and extra time that regular patrol officers often lack, so that such calls can result in a peaceful transport to get the person help, rather than to jail or ending in violence. Having the police involved at all poses policy questions that agencies wrestle with. But thousands of people per year are getting transported to places providing care instead of punishment.

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Vegas Stronger Starts by Asking Businesses to Call Them, Not Police

Jessica Kantor

April 29, 2021 |

What's Next Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Las Vegas, Nevada

When Las Vegas' restrictions on encampments pushed unhoused people into a shopping center outside the restricted zone, Vegas Stronger worked with business owners and the police to intervene without the need for arrests and jail. Although only two months old, the nonprofit has helped about 30 people through the network of services it has arranged. Services include housing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and other connections to services people need to stay healthy and off the streets. Police welcome the interventions because they are relieved of handling non-criminal matters.

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Officers try to break stigma, offer help to drug users

Stephanie Casanova

April 29, 2021 |

Arizona Daily Star |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

Tucson Police Department's Substance Use Resource Team reaches out on the streets to people with substance-use disorder, offering them treatment instead of arrest and jail. The team is an extension of the department's mental health support team and was started in response to the opioid epidemic. Officers talk to people they find on the streets, or follow up on 911 calls for overdoses. Not everyone accepts the offered help, and some end up arrested on warrants. But, at a time of rising overdose deaths, the officers and the peer support specialists who accompany them often can get people into treatment.

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They answer the call when people are in crisis

Gino Fanelli

April 29, 2021 |

City Newspaper (Rochester) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Rochester, New York

Following the death of Daniel Prude in Rochester police custody, the city consulted with the operators of Eugene's CAHOOTS program to craft its own version of a team of unarmed responders to help resolve mental health or substance abuse crises without the use of violence. Rochester's Person In Crisis (PIC) team has averaged about 21 calls per day since January. All calls are made with the police in tandem, unlike CAHOOTS' model. Some violent incidents in Rochester have raised questions about PIC's ability to defuse conflict. But the operators say they have begun to make a positive difference.

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