Social workers, mental health experts, and medical professionals would respond to certain 911 calls as part of a new community crisis response team envisioned by City Hall.
Mayor Justin Elicker announced that planned new program during a Tuesday afternoon press conference on the second floor of 165 Church St.
The newly pitched program would have the city’s 911 call center dispatch specially trained social workers and healthcare experts to calls for service that are related to behavioral and mental health issues.
The goal of the program would be to provide social services rather than criminal charges or a hospital visit for people in crisis.
Flanked to his left and right by top city police, fire, emergency dispatch, and social services staffers, as well as by Clifford Beers CEO Alice Forrester and Connecticut Violence Intervention Project head Leonard Jahad, Elicker said that the new mobile response team plan is still in its early stages.
The city needs to do months of community outreach, issue a request for proposals, evaluate responses from interested service providers, find funding for the project, and then design the program in detail before launching a one-year pilot in mid-2021.
But once in place, he said, the new response team could institute a transformative shift in how the city provides care for people in crisis who are are typically greeted by a police officer or by an ambulance trip to the emergency room.
This program would ensure that “people with the right skills and the right experience arrive to provide the right care at the right time,” Elicker said.
City Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal said the team represents an opportunity “to envision a future where law enforcement is not the de facto system for responding to mental health crises.
“An opportunity to transition from band-aid type solutions to a more systemic approach for our neighbors who are in crisis.”
Elicker, Dalal, and Project Fresh Start Coordinator Carlos Sosa-Lombardo said that the crisis response team program would be modeled off of similar non-police response outfits the city has studied in Oregon, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Georgia, Iowa, and Massachusetts. One of the best known such programs is CAHOOTS in Eugene, Oregon.
Elicker said the coming months of community outreach, through community management teams and other venues, would make sure that whatever New Haven adopts is tailored to the specific needs of this community and not just picked up wholesale from elsewhere in the country and made to work here.
How It Works
Sosa-Lombardo said that a local community crisis response team would respond primarily to calls for service that are not related to crime or emergency medical care.
Examples of such activities include intoxication, loitering, welfare checks, and psychiatric issues.
“They will answer calls that are mainly related to behavioral health, substance abuse, shelter and basic living,” Sosa-Lombardo said.
Dalal said dispatchers at the city’s 911 call center would be specially trained to determine whether or not to send the new crisis response team instead of police, fire, or ambulance personnel out on a call.
If the new emergency crisis response team members are called in, Sosa-Lombardo said, they would assess the needs of the individual in crisis and then connect that person to other social services at that moment of need.
“These first responders would not be law enforcers,” he said. “They would not carry weapons.” They likely would carry police radios, and could call in the police if they determine law enforcement is needed.
Dalal said that a review of city emergency dispatch data from 2019 showed that up to 11,000 dispatches in New Haven could have been screened and possibly diverted to such a crisis response team.
Public Safety Communications Director George Peet, who runs the city’s 911 call center, said that his team receives roughly 7,000 telephone calls a week. Around 2,000 of those calls come through 911, he said, and the rest through the police non-emergency number.
“To see a crisis intervention team is an incredible step in the right direction,” he said. “It’s definitely something we need.”
“Not What Defunding The Police Looks Like”
Police Chief Otoniel Reyes also threw his support behind the program. He said officers are currently called on to respond to “issues that we cannot arrest our way out of” involving deep-seated mental health and social issues like substance abuse disorders and homelessness.
Such a mobile crisis response team would provide a new mechanism for triaging these individuals and helping them get what they need for long-term care, he said.
“This is not what defunding the police looks like,” Reyes said. “This is about providing the right services and making sure that we’re hitting the mark in what we’re all trying to achieve, which is a better city, a healthier city, and better outcomes for our citizens.”
Elicker said that such a program nevertheless does address some of the current “national outcry for change” that has also been felt in New Haven through mass anti-police brutality protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“Throughout our history we’ve put an overemphasis on addressing societal problems with law enforcement,” he said. “Too often police are called to address problems stemming from gaps in social services. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Elicker said that the mobile crisis response team represents one part of a broader reckoning with the historic “criminalization of Black men” as well as with the decades’ long accumulation by police officers of more and more social responsibilities.
Sosa-Lombardo said that other cities that have adopted such programs have seen significant positive impacts such as reduced calls to 911 for non-emergencies that are not related to crime; reduced ambulance trips to hospital emergency rooms; and greater access to a continuum of care for people with mental and behavioral health disorders, all while allowing police more time to dedicate to fighting crime.
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full press conference.
Why waste dollars and sense having trained law enforcement deal with drag-racers ? New Haven has a highly paid Department of Traffic and Transportation. Those “professionals” should be able to function without involving the dreaded cops. Put those “resources” where all the squeaky-wheels cause the most moaning. Police are better utilized in getting to know and earn the trust of their regular beat. People. Let TTP handle automobiles. It’s not rocket surgery.
posted by: Paul Wessel on August 19, 2020 5:38am
This looks like a good step in the right direction. Thank you to Mayor Elicker and everyone involved. P.S. My mom would have liked this. She was a social worker.
posted by: Pat from Westville on August 19, 2020 8:05am
@410am: Your comment seems like it should be posted to some other story—this one has nothing whatsoever to do with drag racing.
posted by: DawnBli on August 19, 2020 9:16am
This is an excellent step in the right direction. Often police who arrive at these mental health issues etc have neither the empathy nor the ability to handle the call. This is a program that speaks to humanity not to an unnecessary violent response. Very similar to the U.K. model of how to help. It is unfortunate this rollout will take so long like many good ideas it will get lost in the paper work and political agendas. One thing though…can we stop with the defund the police stuff?? Just because a couple of people walked around with a sign doesn’t make it a movement. The Chief is starting to sound like a petulant child.
posted by: DawnBli on August 19, 2020 9:18am
@Pat…TY!
posted by: ElmCityLover on August 19, 2020 10:09am
What happens when a social worker shows up and the person refuses help? Is the community is left to deal with the loitering, drunkness, etc? Does the crisis team just end up calling the police for a legal/medical intervention? (I’m assuming the social workers will not have ability to issue a PEER, POLICE Emergency Examination Request, to force the folks to get medical attention if they are a danger to themselves per CGS 17a-502)
Remember, a large part of the post-mortem on LEAD was people turned down social services, partly because they know in the State of CT there are no real consequences for their actions. Perhaps by leading with a social worker who can “sell” them better on getting help this will be mitigated somewhat.
Down to try something new, but I hope they truly think this out and determine if it is tailored to our city, rather than rushing to put something in for the sake of saying a nice press conference to say “look how progressive we are”.
posted by: JohnDVelleca on August 19, 2020 10:40am
Dare I sound like the old cynical dinosaur police officer that I am, but we did this in the 1990’s under Pastore. Makes total sense in theory, but not operation. Guess what happened? The “non-law enforcement professionals” got attacked and assaulted by the combative people the were trying to help, many of whom were high, in withdrawal or severely mentally ill (because, ummm, that’s when people usually call for help in dealing with them, duh). When that happened, the “professionals” called the police for help. It happened so often that it led to a policy where the police were mandated to accompany the “professionals” on theses calls, which led to another policy that mandated police responded to these situations first, render the environment safe, assess the needs of the situation and then call for these “professionals.” Which then led to a referral system because you could never get the “professionals” out after business hours. Ya see?? That’s how we got here in the first place. Do you guys get it? There are actual reasons behind what we do. Same will happen again once the first “professional” gets hurt. I know this seems hard to believe, but as the police we really didn’t just walk around all day eating doughnuts and violating peoples civil rights. We actually thought things out and our daily operations were very specific and based on facts, not fantasy. Maybe Elicker should commence a study to study a study that studied the study before. Or maybe ask someone and include people who know? Idk, maybe that sounds crazy.
posted by: CityYankee on August 19, 2020 11:02am
What does the team do when the people “in crisis” have committed crimes? Skip the crimes? Part of the mentality that will bring every addict and criminal in the area to their “new” haven… New Haven—- where anything goes; except law enforcement. Look what we’ve got!
posted by: seltz027 on August 19, 2020 11:40am
@ElmCityLover LCSWs that have specific training, have an ability to place people on a LCSW/APRN emergency certificate to mandate hospital evaluation. See below from: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2002/rpt/2002-R-0848.htm
C. Commitment Under Emergency Certification of Certain Licensed Clinical Social Workers and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. Certain licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs) and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) can issue emergency certificates authorizing people with mental illness to be taken to a general hospital for examination.
To do this, they must reasonably believe, based on direct evaluation, that the person has a psychiatric disability, is dangerous to himself or others or gravely disabled, and needs immediate care and treatment. The person must be examined within 24 hours and released within 72 hours unless he is committed to a psychiatric facility.
This applies to LCSWs and APRNs who, as members of mobile crisis teams, jail diversion programs, or assertive case management programs operated by, or under contract with, the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), have received at least eight hours of specialized training in conducting these kinds of direct evaluations. (The DHMAS commissioner must collect statistical and demographic data on emergency certificates issued by LCSWs and APRNs) (CGS § 17a-503(d)).
posted by: Eric B. Smith on August 19, 2020 12:04pm
It would be great if such a program could work, BUT…what @JohnDVelleca said!
posted by: Chris246 on August 19, 2020 1:43pm
This sounds like a great idea but then reality sets in.
In each of the instances that are described in the article to include but not limited to Intoxication, psychiatric issues, loitering, substance abuse and welfare checks all of these carry some danger for the individuals who respond. To send in unarmed person into such situations is going to place them in danger as well. Armed with a radio to call for a police response if needed and those minutes seem like hours when waiting for assistance to arrive.
What will most likely happen is that a member of the nonuniformed team, with no protection will arrive at a situation see the need for a police response and then back out. That will extend the problem and make it longer and more drawn out.
And lets be careful about ushering in a “transformational shift” in anything.
I hope it works but have worked in the public sector to know from experience that there will be breakdowns and police will have to be on scene.
Have a nice day.
posted by: ElmCityLover on August 19, 2020 2:07pm
@seltz027 I missed that, thanks
posted by: PAI on August 19, 2020 2:25pm
@John Velleca Take a look at Eugene, Ore. They have been doing it for 30 years. Maybe they solved the problems you point out. The program in Eugene is called Cahoots
posted by: Pat from Westville on August 19, 2020 3:50pm
Yes, if you click on the link early in this story, there are in particular: —an interview with the clinic coordinator and a crisis worker from NPR’s All Things Considered from July 10 When the crisis worker was asked how often was her training just not enough to handle the problem, she replied, ‘last year, out of a total of about 24,000 calls, 150 times we called for police backup for some reason, so not very often.” She also said she never has felt the need for a weapon. —a piece from CNN (which I’ve skimmed but not really read through)
Eugene is somewhat larger than New Haven (172,000) and has a much less diverse population (less than 2% of the population is Black, according to census data) than New Haven. Maybe something like this might work here, maybe it wouldn’t. But with community input I think it’s worth a try.
posted by: Heather C. on August 19, 2020 3:58pm
This new program will take time, and probably need lots of revisions before they get it right, but don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. If we had a 24-7 two person team at each response with professional crisis training to address non-violence social service/mental health/addiction scenarios to handle these types of calls, we could free up police to handle higher risk level calls. If the police had a team they could count on to handle non-violent issues, then it would reduce their stress levels and relieve them of handling situations that they aren’t being trained for in de-escalation and intervention and behavior modification. For higher threat level calls, maybe an police officer and the crisis team could both be responding to coordinate intervention and then refer to the appropriate care. Police officers also need revised training with regular refresher courses on de-escalation, intervention and mental health patient handling and addiction patient handling so they can approach those scenarios with the appropriate training and approach of getting people help in a medical or mental health support setting rather than just criminalizing and incarcerating those individuals. The State of CT should take the money they save on not incarcerating the mentally ill and addicted and put it instead into rehab centers, therapy, supported living, and other treatment centers or group homes and halfway houses as they progress through their treatment on their way to getting better. New Haven should have a drop in warming/cooling daytime center with on site counselors and support service referrals and laundry and showers and health checkups that would focus on determining the clients needs and current situations and moving them into out patient and in patient programs as needed to address their issues. The homeless drop in pop up center that was so successfully put in place at the beginning of the pandemic should have a permanent building location somewhere near downtown.
posted by: George Polk on August 19, 2020 5:11pm
OK, lets give it a try but to avoid some of the problems JohnD points out those Social workers better be on the same type of shift rotations as the police are. Clocking out at 5pm and weekends off won’t fly. Brave of Pat of Westville of mentioning the demographics of Eugene.
posted by: dad101 on August 19, 2020 7:31pm
MR Vellecca is so right. How about the fact that the police had to escort fire personnel for years to be able to put out fires! Mr Eckler isnt doing anything new. NHPD has a partnership with Yale child study in which therapist come out to work with families etc after a crisis but the number of staff has dwindled you know why because those positions make way MORE than an officer and those w LCSWs and APRNs actually not only make significantly more but they city doesnt even have the resources to put enough nurses in its schools…if MR Eckler wants to do something like re inventing the wheel how about holding parents accountable not just for their behaviors but their lack of as well. The idea that teens and tweens riding dirt bikes quads etc thru the city, smoking getting high and participating in gang related activity has quite a bit to do with the lack of stability in their homes. There are too many studies to quote that have indicated the majority of gang members turn to gangs to be A PART OF…what this boils down to is parents having resources to deal with issues in their home before it gets to a criminal level. Officers respond to things after it is out of control ...maybe the city doesnt need ten clerks to do the work that five did pre computers and put more social workers in schools so they can deal with issues there .Hell new haven has diversion programs to keep people from going to jail when they have substance issues and they dont even come close to maxing out the resources available because the community hasnt decided to make it work.New Haven had a needle exchange program that needed officers there to protect the people giving out free clean needle, new haven has APT foundation which is a program to help addicts and officers still have to go there to deal with nonsense….
posted by: alphabravocharlie on August 20, 2020 12:45am
Hold my beer
posted by: 410am on August 20, 2020 2:32am
@PatW @DawnB The story isn’t the headline. The story is about removing certain responsibilities from the people we rely on all the time and need the most. Street cops, Sgts, Lts, Detectives. There’s a hundred O.D.‘s on the green….send the social worker. 20 people drinking at Temple and Church….same…..200 drag racers at Long Wharf….. don’t send cops, send Traffic and Parking. An on and on and on. That’s a worthy effort I believe everyone supports. Societies escort , the City of Yale at New Haven, has dumped every problem at the foot of an understaffed Police Department., when EVERYONE needs to step up. If you didn’t get the point, it is that ALL of this city needs to be innovative, proactive, responsible for the money we pay them and that burden-shifting and complacency won’t cut it any more. I’d rather be paying the Sarge in the first pic to interdict drug use in the public square. There’s plenty of social workers to treat it. Drag racers and our preferred response is just a different example.
posted by: 410am on August 20, 2020 2:37am
Forgot to mention : If you are authorized to carry a “police radio” with the capability of notifying law enforcement with the push of a finger, YOU’RE A COP.
posted by: mcg2000 on August 20, 2020 6:33am
JohnD when the previous program evolved into the police responding to a person experiencing mental distress or substance abuse issues and referred the person to a social worker later, what happened? Did the referral happen? If not, why not? Did it fall through the cracks? If so, was the problem on the police’s end or the social worker’s end? Or was the referral made but the person didn’t make themselves available to the social worker?
posted by: MrT2022 on August 20, 2020 7:02am
I just am concerned that folks with deep seated mental health issues being denied a trip to the hospital after a consultation with a mental health worker will do more harm than good. When people are at the point of calling 911 they are usually already in crisis. Leaving them be in their mental state at home may prove to be more harmful.
I have much respect for Chief Reyes and trust his advice/opinion on this new initiative. At least the city is Trying something new. If it proves to be ineffective I hope no lives are lost in the process.
posted by: JohnDVelleca on August 20, 2020 8:12am
@mcg2000
Referrals were made regularly by the police, I’m sure thousands were made. I can remember this initiative well, as I was a patrol officer at the time. Actions that were taken were simple: Mental Illness - send to hospital for evaluation, Drug withdrawal - send to hospital for detox, High on drugs - send to hospital for detox or lock-up if unmanageable (no charges). Then you would make the appropriate referral on your report and the copy would head upstairs to the detective division where it was read by a supervisor, sorted and referred to the appropriate agency. I’ll spare you the details, but the system quickly got overwhelmed and we spent lots of money and human capital on attempting to locate people who didn’t want help to begin with. Remember, NOBODY WILL FORCE THESES SERVICES!! If there are any people out there that believe the majority of drug users and abusers are left to get high on the green because it’s their only alternative and they’d much rather be in an office with a counselor trying to work through their addiction, you should stop being naive. Our mentally ill need help, but that system is more overwhelmed than the substance abuse services. We ended up intervening in volatile situations and promising services that we could not deliver, which hurt our relationship with the community further. New Haven is not Eugene Oregon. Eugene has a reputation for being one of the safest cities in the country and New Haven, well, doesn’t lets say. What works there may not work here (round peg, round hole kinda thing). The success of this program will be determined by the service provider and their ability to manage the caseload. It looks like the city will be using private vendors for that, so prepare to open your wallets again. They ain’t cheap and funding is paramount to success.. Good Luck, I’m sure the cops are happy not being social workers since they can now get sued for everything under the sun.
posted by: DawnBli on August 20, 2020 9:01am
@410. The story is the headline. Where exactly is it u think u live? This is NH not Newark. Why can’t we ever try new things ideas programs in this city without people thinking life as we know it will cease to exist? Are people really so terrified of change? No one here has any idea what this will look like or how it will operate. NO ONE! So sit down and relax. The sky isn’t falling just yet Chicken little!
posted by: DMH464 on August 20, 2020 12:31pm
@DawmBli
Your wrong, it has been tried before, just read Vellecas post and you will see it failed and it will fail once more because MONEY not good intentions makes the world turn.
posted by: elmcitybornandraised on August 24, 2020 4:17pm
State Social Workers are not hazardous duty employees, their unions have been fighting for that distinction for years. Will these social workers who will literally be dispatched to calls be hazardous duty in case something horrible happens to them??? Also will they be apart of a union? These are big questions that will need to be answered. I’m all for taking away unnecessary work from Police Officers, lets see if this can actually work. I’m skeptical and truly believe these professionals will get dispatched and 75% of them will need to call for PD assistance anyway…hoping in the future I’m wrong.
Social workers, mental health experts, and medical professionals would respond to certain 911 calls as part of a new community crisis response team envisioned by City Hall.
Flanked to his left and right by top city police, fire, emergency dispatch, and social services staffers, as well as by Clifford Beers CEO Alice Forrester and Connecticut Violence Intervention Project head Leonard Jahad, Elicker said that the new mobile response team plan is still in its early stages.
City Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal said the team represents an opportunity “to envision a future where law enforcement is not the de facto system for responding to mental health crises.
Sosa-Lombardo said that a local community crisis response team would respond primarily to calls for service that are not related to crime or emergency medical care.
Public Safety Communications Director George Peet, who runs the city’s 911 call center, said that his team receives roughly 7,000 telephone calls a week. Around 2,000 of those calls come through 911, he said, and the rest through the police non-emergency number.
Police Chief Otoniel Reyes also threw his support behind the program. He said officers are currently called on to respond to “issues that we cannot arrest our way out of” involving deep-seated mental health and social issues like substance abuse disorders and homelessness.
Elicker said that the mobile crisis response team represents one part of a broader reckoning with the historic “criminalization of Black men” as well as with the decades’ long accumulation by police officers of more and more social responsibilities.