A variety of different crisis response teams currently exist across the country. It is common for a community to hone in and focus on one type of crisis response team and ignore or fail to learn the benefits. In an ideal world, each community has a multifaceted approach to community safety with different crisis response teams working together to build an effective crisis response system.
We will discuss the makeup of each crisis response team, how they handle different crisis levels, why equity and inclusion are essential in deciding the type of team needed, and how other teams can work together to build an effective system. We will also bring examples of communities with multiple types of teams available and the benefits provided to those communities by this cooperation.
Four Different Types of Crisis Response Teams
There are many different crisis response models being utilized across the country. Let’s discuss some of the most popular options.
- Co-Responder Models
Co-responder programs offer law enforcement and mental health professionals the opportunity to work together to ensure the safety of both police officers and individual community members who are suffering from a behavioral health crisis.
A concept created in the United States in the 1990s, co-responder programs have been exploding in popularity all over the globe because of the benefits they offer in money-saving and community building. Co-responder programs work by pairing a law enforcement officer with a mental health professional (often a licensed social worker) as a first responder team. Individuals in the community will be contacted by both the police officer and the mental health professional. In many communities, EMS is also included in the team.
Co-responder programs have successfully defused crisis situations, reduced the number of individuals arrested and incarcerated, and built positive law-enforcement community relations.
- Fire-Led Crisis Response Teams
Fire department led crisis response teams function to provide an additional resource for individuals experiencing behavioral health crises in the community. Typical fire department-led crisis response team members include a paramedic, an EMT, and a peer support specialist.
Team members provide on-the-scene therapeutic care and work to connect individuals to follow-up resources. As in San Francisco, fire department-led crisis response teams may greatly decrease the strain on 911 and other emergency system services when implemented.
- Mobile Crisis Teams
A mobile crisis team is a group of professionals that meet individuals suffering from a behavioral health crisis where they are in the community. Unlike co-responder models, which function off of 911 calls for service, mobile crisis teams typically function without law enforcement partners.
Mobile crisis teams often utilize vans or bicycles to get out into the community to provide resources. Because they are not responding to 911 calls, mobile crisis teams may target high-crime or high-need areas of your community.
This allows social workers, peer recovery specialists, and other medical professionals to access individuals suffering from a behavioral health crisis before they come in contact with law enforcement.
- 911 Diversion Crisis Response Teams
Another direct way to reduce strain on 911 call resources is to utilize a 911 diversion crisis response team. This option functions by diverting calls to the 911 dispatch center that do not require a response from law enforcement or the fire department. These calls will be directed to available service agencies that can provide mental health support or substance abuse disorder treatment.
911 Diversion crisis response teams have effectively cut community costs on emergency services. Other benefits of a 911 diversion crisis response system include reduced contacts with law enforcement, increased connection to services, and decreased stigma associated with calling 911.
Houston Police Department implemented a 911 call diversion program in 2015 after seeing a steady increase in mental health crisis calls to 911. The program later expanded to include calls to the Houston Fire Department. In 2020, The diversion program diverted 2116 calls from Houston Police or Fire Departments, resulting in $1,666,732 in annual savings.
How to Decide What Type of Crisis Response Teams Will Benefit Your Community
Determining what type of crisis response teams will best support your community is a conversation you must have with all relevant stakeholders. If you do not already have a mechanism for gathering the essential stakeholders in your community on issues of public safety, mental health treatment, or substance use disorders, now is the time to do so.
Important stakeholders in this decision will include traditional partners such as law enforcement, emergency room management, social workers, and homeless services agencies. But crisis response teams are in the streets, dealing with individuals in a behavioral health crisis or substance use disorder. The reality of this situation requires you to consider the opinions of other, more non-traditional stakeholders.
Some of the non-traditional stakeholders whose opinions may be critical to your community’s decision about what crisis response teams to implement are individuals with lived experience with substance use, addiction, mental health disorders, and behavioral health issues. Including these diverse voices in your stakeholder pool will ensure that your community selects a group of crisis response teams that serve your community’s needs.
Operating several different crisis response teams requires a community to have a strategy for sharing data across systems. Law enforcement, fire departments, medical professionals, social workers, peer recovery specialists, and professionals from other organizations must be able to access and share data.
These efforts are best supported by a cloud-based data software program, such as Julota. Utilizing a cloud-based software allows all involved stakeholders real-time access to shared data. Additionally, software such as Julota makes it easy for communities to ensure that they are complying with federal, state, and local privacy and confidentiality laws.
How Different Crisis Response Teams Can Collaborate in a Multifaceted Approach to Community Safety
The unfortunate truth is that law enforcement officers are 16 times more likely to kill someone with a mental health illness compared to others without a mental illness. This statistic should show that having law enforcement as the only option to respond to calls for behavioral health crises can lead to more harm in your community than good.
Implementing crisis response teams in your community can bring tangible benefits to law enforcement, individuals needing service, and the community. When crisis response teams are available, law enforcement is freed up to focus on emergencies that do not just involve an individual experiencing a behavioral health crisis, posing no risk of danger to anyone else. Law enforcement resources are freed up to focus on actual threats to public safety.
Additionally, crisis response teams can help to lower hospital admissions by providing on-the-scene mental health care and substance use disorder treatment. This on-the-street service prevents individuals from cycling through the emergency room to the incarceration loop, saving communities a lot of money.
Community Examples of a Multifaceted Approach to Community Safety and Crisis Response
As crisis response teams grow in popularity, cities have utilized the benefits of several different teams to work together to create a comprehensive crisis response system.
San Francisco is an example of a city with several different crisis response teams working together. The city operates a 911 emergency call-based crisis response system. This functions like a typical co-responder program where the first responders on scene will include an available mental health professional and/or peer support worker. This co-responder model effectively responds to more emergent situations and individuals with multidisciplinary needs.
The city also operates a non-emergency crisis response team that responds to non-emergency calls for service for individuals experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis. These teams are available to callers of the city’s non-emergency phone line.
Finally, the city operates several roaming crisis response teams that are not response-based. These teams, which have areas of specialized focus, such as homelessness or substance abuse, work with individuals in the community in high-need areas. These teams actively engage individuals to determine their needs and where support can be provided.
The network of crisis response teams allows San Francisco police and fire departments to focus on truly emergent situations. These efforts save the city a great deal of money, and the community can also build trust with service providers and mental health workers because law enforcement is not a constant, oppressive presence.
Sonoma County, California, offers another example of how a crisis response system can support a more rural community. Sonoma County operates a mobile crisis response team that works in partnership with law enforcement to respond to calls for service for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis. This effort ensures that community members are receiving the most comprehensive care available.
The county also operates a roaming crisis response team called SAFE, Specialized Assistance for Everyone. This team does not respond to emergency calls but instead spends time in high-need areas of the community where they focus on providing community outreach and connection to services.
The SAFE team can support the co-responder teams by taking additional pressure off emergency services and decreasing community contact with law enforcement. Sonoma County hosts regular meetings where stakeholders of both teams and other agencies in the community communicate about their efforts and where increased collaboration could benefit.
Want to learn more about how a comprehensive crisis response system supported by a cloud-based data platform will support your community? Contact a Julota representative today.