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Mental health teams that respond to emergencies in lieu of police will soon be available countywide

San Diego Union-Tribune - 12/7/2021

Behavioral health teams that can respond to mental health and substance use emergencies instead of police will be available to all county residents starting Wednesday, officials announced.

Every year, officers and deputies across the county respond to tens of thousands of mental health calls. Many of these calls are rightly classified as emergencies and require a speedy response, but county and law enforcement leaders agree that these situations don't always benefit from the presence of officers.

Police reform advocates locally and across the nation have long pushed for some kind of alternative, citing incidents in which police have wounded or killed people in mental crisis.

In January, county officials launched the Mobile Crisis Response Team program to serve as exactly that sort of alternative. The teams consist of mental health clinicians, case managers and peer support specialists who assess behavioral health and connect individuals to the appropriate level of care. County officials say these professionals are uniquely positioned to offer a person-centered approach to nonviolent behavioral health situations that are often more effectively addressed by trained clinicians than officers.

During an update Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors meeting, officials said the program would officially be available to all residents after expanding to the county's north inland region, which encompasses Escondido, San Marcos, Poway and the northern part of San Diego.

"This is a work in progress," said Luke Bergmann, the county's behavioral health services director. "Given the volumes of people still having law enforcement-driven encounters while in the midst of crises, and given the volumes of people in jail in our county who have a mental illness or a substance use condition, we know the utility of this service is massive, and we anticipate that it will continue to grow."

As of Nov. 29, Mobile Crisis Response Teams have responded to 268 calls. Nearly a third of the people the teams interacted with were taken to crisis stabilization units, and about 45 percent were connected to community services. About one in four had either left the location where the call was made or refused services. In those kinds of situations, clinicians still provide resources to the individual or their family members should they be receptive in the future.

Nearly three-quarters of the people the teams have assisted were homeless.

Currently, people can reach Mobile Crisis Response Teams through the county's Access and Crisis Line at (888) 724-7240. Law enforcement agencies can get in touch with the teams, as well, should officers respond to a mental health emergency that they aren't needed at. Residents in Chula Vista and National City can also get connected to MCRTs by calling 911, a feature officials are working to implement countywide.

Although Mobile Crisis Response Teams are an alternative welcomed by many, police will still be responsible for responding to mental health calls where a person is a danger to themselves or others. In these cases, officers or a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team, which pairs a mental health clinician with an officer or deputy, will be sent to respond.

County officials said they have worked closely with law enforcement to create specific criteria that dispatchers will use to determine whether a person should be referred to MCRT or police. For example, crisis response units would not be called to situations in which a person is armed with a weapon, if a crime has been committed or if someone is threatening to harm themselves or others.

"Mobile Crisis Response Teams are part of our ongoing implementation of better mental health and addiction treatment services to help put San Diegans on a path to recovery," Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said in a statement. "In a short period of time, MCRTs are proving to be a success, but as the program continues to roll out we will make adjustments and efficiencies to ensure we're continuously making progress with helping our residents."

During Tuesday's update, Bergmann explained that staffing has been a challenge as the Mobile Crisis Response Team program has expanded. He said a behavioral health committee has been looking closely at this issue, and plans to make a series of recommendations that aim to improve staffing within the mental health field to the Board of Supervisors in the spring.

The Mobile Crisis Response Team program is expected to cost about $10 million. The county is also planning on investing $600,000 on a public information campaign about when and how to call a crisis response team.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

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