It happens an average of three times a day in Deschutes County: A suicidal person or someone concerned about one calls 911.
Dispatchers here and around the country have traditionally routed these calls to law enforcement agencies, but a proposal being developed in Deschutes County would dispatch two mental health professionals to the door of the person in crisis — no police in sight.
“There’s a lot left to figure out, but we know this can be done safely because it’s been done lots of places around the country,” said Holly Harris, Deschutes County’s mental health program manager for crisis services.
About a year ago, after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer and widespread calls for police reform, Harris began meeting with representatives of Deschutes 911 and local law enforcement agencies to identify calls where subjects would be better served by mental health workers.
The resulting pilot program would cost the county approximately $250,000 to $300,000 and would strengthen an existing program, the Mobile Crisis Assessment Team, or MCAT, by funding two mental health workers to respond to calls of suicidal subjects without involving law enforcement.
Police officers would still be dispatched if the person is known to have a weapon or has attempted suicide before.
Leaders of Redmond Police Department and Bend Police Department are supportive of the idea, Harris said. If approved, the program could begin in September.
“Law enforcement has told us this is a great place to start, and that it would help them out tremendously if we were able to take those off their hands,” Harris said.
Data from Deschutes 911 shows these responses last an average of two hours and rarely require a police presence, Harris said. And just as police are ill-equipped to respond to mental health calls, mental health workers are not trained in situational awareness and other law enforcement concepts.
The pilot program would involve training for mental health workers to operate police radios and know when to call for backup when they feel their safety is at risk. Fortunately, studies from successful similar programs in the U.S. show that’s a rare occurrence, Harris said.
A unique Lane County program, CAHOOTS, is considered a national model in crisis response. CAHOOTS is tied in with a medical clinic, which allows 911 operators to dispatch two-person teams consisting of an EMT and a mental health worker in an ambulance.
Such an arrangement is not currently in the works in Deschutes County, but local leaders are looking at expanding the types of emergency calls mental health workers respond to, like disorderly conduct and trespassing, calls that often involve a mental health component.
There are four programs in the county that currently address mental health crises.
• The Bend City Council-funded Crisis Response Team, a mental health unit within the Bend Police Department.
• Bend Police’s grant-funded Co-Responder program, which embeds two Deschutes County mental health workers in the Bend Police Department. Mental health counselor Abby Levin responds alongside a Bend officer to calls in city limits and connects subjects with services. Harris said the program has been a big success, diverting an increasing number of people from the justice system each year, but that only shows the need in the region.
Levin is only able to respond on calls during her four 10-hour shifts per week, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
“We could use it round-the-clock,” Harris said.
The program is assured federal grant funding through October 2023.
• The county’s MCAT, which responds to mental health calls countywide and in the emergency room at St. Charles Bend, though not alongside deputies in their vehicles. Response times vary though they’ve been decreasing and can be as short as 10 to 15 minutes, according to Deschutes County Mental Health.
In 2020, MCAT responded on 9,500 calls, a jump of 45% from 2019.
• The county also operates the Stabilization Center, opened in 2020, on the Bend law enforcement campus on Poe Sholes Drive. It provides services to adults and children experiencing short-term mental health crisis.
April 22, 2021 at 08:00AM
https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/crimeandjustice/proposal-would-send-mental-health-workers-not-police-to-suicidal-911-callers/article_d3c7f1fe-a2e8-11eb-aff9-df80be2d7f06.html
Proposal would send mental health workers, not police, to suicidal 911 callers - The Bulletin
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