The city launched a pilot program last week to respond more effectively to 911 calls involving severe mental health incidents.
The Austin Field Integrated Response Support Team is composed of a mental health clinician, a police officer and an emergency services worker. Together, they will respond to high-acuity incidents or instances where people with mental health conditions have a high risk of harming themselves or others.
“(Mental health incidents) have always been an issue, and the solution has been elusive,” Chief Medical Officer Mark Escott said. “This (program) represents an opportunity for us to efficiently respond to these emergencies and then de-escalate them and connect people to care.”
Previously, police would respond to the emergency first, and emergency service and mental health workers would wait away from the scene until it was declared safe. In this new approach, the EMS and Integral Care workers will be the first sent into the scene.
Marisa Malik, director of Crisis Services and Justice Initiatives at Integral Care, said having a mental health clinician — who is trained in crisis response — on the scene is important because not only can they help de-escalate the situation, but they can also immediately begin treatment for the subject and prevent them from causing another incident in the future.
“(These incidents) can be very complex and dynamic,” Malik said. “Having someone with that background and expertise to really provide person-centered care, trauma-informed care and meet that person where they’re at provides the best opportunity in that moment for better outcomes for their recovery process.”
The pilot program runs from Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will last for six months. It covers the area of Downtown Austin enclosed within Mopac, Enfield Road, Interstate 35 and W Martin Luther King Boulevard.
“The plan would be to expand (the program), but we want to make sure it’s working. We want to make sure that it’s functioning in the right way,” said Michael Chancellor, an assistant chief with APD. “Then, we obviously have to make sure we have the staffing to do it.”
Chancellor said success in the program can be tracked by comparing the response to calls in the sector with the new pilot program to those in other sectors, and seeing if there is less force used, less injuries to officers and subjects and if there are fewer repeat calls.
“We’re essentially tracking, ‘Did this person get some help that they really needed?’” Chancellor said.
Angela Carr, a division chief with Austin-Travis County EMS, said it is important both to keep the community safe and make sure that those with mental health issues get the care they need. She said she’s glad the city is tackling this issue and working to solve it.
“All of the providers that have been working on the pilot so far have really been instrumental in laying the foundation for what this program can look like in the future,” Carr said. “I’m very, very hopeful that this is going to be just an all-around win for the citizens of Austin, the city of Austin and the patients.”
