New St. Louis (MO) Program to Divert Mental Health Calls Away from 911

Robert Patrick St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT) ST. LOUIS — If all goes according to plan, thousands of 911 calls beginning this month will not reach St. Louis police or fire personnel. Calls involving people with mental health issues, or in a mental crisis, may instead be diverted to specially trained behavioral health professionals. Tiffany Lacy Clark, COO of the contractor involved in the program, Behavioral Health Response, said the broader goals of the program are to relieve police and EMS workers from responding to many mental health crises, to prevent people undergoing a crisis from going to jail or the hospital, and to help people obtain behavioral health services when needed. Lacy Clark called the program “cutting edge” and a “tremendous positive collaboration” among the city, police, mental health providers and others. St. Louis will be the first city in the U.S. to divert such calls outside the 911 system, officials said. “We’re very excited about it,” St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said last month. The new initiative will have two parts: 911 diversion and a co-responder program. 911 diversion 911 calls involving a mental health concern typically end up with a response by police or an ambulance, and often “neither is really the appropriate place,” said Lacy Clark. In the 911 diversion program, dispatchers will be trained to send calls that don’t involve imminent health or s...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Communications & Dispatch News News Feed 911 Mental Health Missouri Source Type: news