Fire departments all over the United States are responding to more and more mental health calls. By using innovative strategies to reduce mental health calls, fire departments can improve the lives of community members and better utilize local resources.
Several innovative strategies to reduce mental health calls in fire departments include establishing a community paramedic program, building a crisis response team, setting up alternative destination protocols, allowing social workers to respond to 911 calls, and improving follow-up care.
As you can see, there are options for fire departments who want to reduce mental health calls! Let’s talk about them in more detail.
How Fire Departments Can Reduce Mental Health Calls in Their Area
There has been an initiative nationwide to improve responses to mental health calls. Why is this? There are several reasons, such as reducing adverse incidents with police, offering alternatives to jail, and reducing super utilization of the 911 and emergency response systems.
But all that aside, the main reason is this: more people need help with mental health, and they need help differently.
Here are several ways fire departments can reduce mental health calls:
- Establish mobile integrated healthcare
- Building a crisis response team
- Integrating social workers
- Creating alternative destination protocols
- Reducing the need for police response
- Building better follow up teams
You’ll find more details below!
Establish Mobile Integrated Healthcare
The first step fire departments can take to reduce the number of calls related to mental health issues is to start a community paramedic/mobile integrated health (MIH) team. What is MIH, and what can it do for mental health patients?
Mobile integrated healthcare, often known as community paramedicine, is an out-of-hospital system of care that helps guide EMS, Fire, and PD toward providing more holistic (you might also hear integrated) care. The idea is that there are many opportunities for Fire and EMS to benefit the community beyond responding to typical emergencies.
A mobile integrated healthcare team is usually formed in partnership with a physician and other professionals, such as social workers, substance abuse rehabilitation centers, and mental healthcare facilities. The idea is to create a team to communicate, collaborate, and better serve the entire community.
Why is this the first step? Starting a mobile integrated health program provides the foundation for everything else. Suppose your fire department has already begun working with other community members in ways beyond emergency care. In that case, they will be much better positioned to initiate the strategies we’ll list in the following sections.
Starting a community paramedic program might seem daunting and overwhelming (or you might feel that your department doesn’t have the time, money, or resources), but the truth is that you can start very small and build from there. Perhaps all you do is start by having EMS and fire crews provide referrals for mental health patients to appropriate facilities.
Whatever you decide to do, here’s the key: starting.
Building a Crisis Response Team
After you’ve taken a step toward establishing an MIH team, it’s time to start thinking about how to address the problem of mental health. With that, let’s talk about the crisis response team.
First, it’s essential to know that terms like “Crisis Response Team” can have different meanings in different areas. For this article, a Crisis Response Team is one designed in collaboration with PD in hopes of redirecting those having a psychological crisis away from jail and toward an appropriate mental health facility.
Why is the Crisis Response Team (CRT) such a beneficial program? Well, it comes down to breaking a destructive cycle. As an example, say a person with schizophrenia has a crisis where they threaten violence to another person. Of course, this is a safety risk, and people must be protected. With that said it might be easy for police officers to respond to a “violent person” and neutralize the threat (taking them to jail).
For someone with a mental health issue, jail time will only push the problem to a later date – it won’t correct it. On the other hand, a crisis response team would respond to this same violent person, implement various de-escalation techniques, and get the patient to a facility that can help them correct the mental health issue.
See the difference? Without the CRT, fire departments will continue to respond to patients with “psychiatric issues,” with the CRT, the person can get real help, leading to fewer mental health calls.
Integrating Social Workers
Allowing social workers to take part in the mental health response can be a game changer for areas with a high volume of mental health 911 calls. People struggling with a mental health illness are often plagued with a complex array of issues – some social, some physical, some psychological. Bringing in someone like a social worker trained to look beyond the physical can be a game changer.
Sometimes, even when healthcare systems do everything right and provide excellent care, they still fall short. Why? Because they can’t see many hidden needs a patient might have.
For example, take a patient who struggles with depression and has attempted suicide. The hospital and mental health facility might provide top-notch care, but if the patient has a negative living situation, it may be challenging to follow a long-term care plan.
That’s where the social worker comes into play. They ensure that patients struggling with mental health issues have more than just medications. They give these people a road map to overcome other obstacles (financial, housing, etc.)
If your fire department is looking for ways to reduce mental health calls, you may consider consulting with a social worker.
Creating Alternative Destination Protocols
Should the ambulance take you to the grocery store if you break your arm? This would be absurd. But, in a way, this is what happens when all mental health patients are funneled to the ER. It’s not that the ER isn’t equipped to care for these patients in the short term, but most would agree that the ER isn’t the best place to be when it comes to the long-term management of mental health issues.
Suppose your fire department could establish protocols where psychological crisis patients are transported to a mental health facility. In that case, these patients might get more targeted long-term care. The result? There are fewer mental health calls overall.
Not only will alternative destination protocols reduce recurring mental health issues, but they will also reduce bottle-necking in the ER.
Changing Police Officer Response
While we all have great respect for the police officers who faithfully protect our cities, the fact is that having a police officer on the scene of every mental health crisis can have some downsides.
For one, particularly in areas with less education, it can be common for a medical call to become a PD matter accidentally. For example, some police officers have mistaken patients with head injuries as being intentionally violent. The result is that the patient doesn’t get the care they need.
Second, the presence of police officers can drastically increase anxiety among patients struggling with a mental health crisis. For this reason, if possible, see if your fire department can collaborate with PD to form a crisis response team (a team that may include social workers and mental health professionals). CRTs are better for the patient and better for the community.
Build Better Follow-Up Teams
We all know how hard it can be to stick to something: budgets, diets, workout plans. So, imagine how hard it can be for someone who has just had an adverse mental health event to stick with a long-term care plan.
Fire departments can work with mental health professionals to provide follow-up services to patients who have recently experienced a mental health crisis. These follow-up teams will help ensure the patient has the tools and resources to stay on a path to healing.
Conclusion: Strategic Ways Fire Departments Can Reduce Mental Health Calls
Fire departments can use a few strategies to reduce mental health calls: prehospital social workers, crisis response teams, alternative destination protocols, and incident follow-up teams.
For some fire departments and EMS systems, these options can seem overwhelming. After all, many people already have much to think about – who has time to start a new program? Well, the fact is, the world is changing. And it’s changing rapidly. Frankly, those who don’t adjust will fall behind and eventually fall away.
Contact Julota to learn how their software can act as a foundation for integrated mental health response programs. A representative would happily listen to your needs, provide a demo, and answer any questions.