How to help someone struggling with mental illness

Julia Hotz

June 07, 2021 |

Popular Science |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

The Mental Health First Aid course teaches people who are not mental health professionals to respond to people in crisis based on understanding rather than fear. Millions of people have taken the course in 24 countries since its introduction two decades ago. It has been shown to give trainees greater confidence in their ability to provide help, but its effects on the people receiving the care is less clear. The training can be particularly useful to healthcare and law enforcement workers who are more likely to encounter such scenarios.

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San Francisco's new homeless street teams make progress, garner praise

Joshua Sabatini

June 04, 2021 |

San Francisco Examiner |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

San Francisco's Street Crisis Response Team is a pilot project meant to divert 911 calls for mental health emergencies from police to new teams of mobile counselors. Though it started with only one team and later expanded to four, the project in less than six months took 20% of the eligible calls. More than half the clients were helped on the streets, while most others were hospitalized or connected with shelters. The city is proposing a major expansion of this and related teams aimed at reducing the reliance on police in non-violent situations.

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Mobile crisis response program draws national attention but still struggles with funding

Dave Miller Allison Frost

June 02, 2021 |

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) |

Radio Talk Show |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

The CAHOOTS program's national popularity as a model for diverting crisis calls from the police to unarmed teams of a medic and counselor belies its inability to fully serve its own community because of under-funding. Program director Ebony Morgan talks about the flip side of the program's cost savings for the city: unfairly low pay for its workers, long response times, and an inability to expand. The program's success with the community is built on trust that people in crisis will be helped rather than viewed as a threat. Morgan says the program itself needs to be valued more by city budget managers.

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Enlisting Mental Health Workers, Not Cops, In Mobile Crisis Response

Rob Waters

June 01, 2021 |

Health Affairs |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

The long-running CAHOOTS program, which replaces police with medics and social workers to respond to non-violent, non-criminal mental health crises, suicide threats, and problems stemming from homelessness, serves as a model for similar programs in the nationwide push to reimagine policing. CAHOOTS teams de-escalate crises at first simply because they are not armed police. They also take the time and have the training to calm situations and get people the help they need. Programs in Phoenix and Denver demonstrate how the idea plays out in larger cities.

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In San Francisco, Help Hits the Streets with a Crisis Response Team

Natalie Mead

May 21, 2021 |

What's Next Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Six San Francisco neighborhoods are now served by the city's Street Crisis Response Teams, which answer 911 calls for non-violent mental or behavioral health crises without police involvement. In its first two months in one neighborhood, the Tenderloin, the team handled 199 calls without any violent incidents or any need for police intervention. That led to the expansion to five more neighborhoods. The program is modeled on Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS project's street medics and counselors, but with an additional "peer specialist," someone with lived experience to counsel unhoused people on the streets.

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How Alameda County addresses mental-health crisis response

Stephen Baxter

May 20, 2021 |

Santa Cruz Local |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

Alameda and Santa Cruz counties have fielded their own mobile teams to respond to mental health crises as alternatives to police-only responses. Aimed at reducing conflicts with police, overuse of hospitals and jails, and involuntarily commitments for short-term emergency mental health care, the services' limited hours and resources mean that the police still handle the majority of such calls. Alameda's pilot, begun in July 2020, is able to provide help to about one-third of the four dozen monthly calls it gets. Santa Cruz's volume is higher. Impacts on involuntary commitments unclear.

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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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