BOSTON (WHDH) - Boston Mayor Kim Janey on Thursday announced a pilot initiative that’s aimed at changing the way the city responds to mental health crises.
The pilot plan will amplify the role of mental health workers and reduce the role of police officers in response to mental health crises that occur in the city, according to the Janey.
“I am proud to launch a pilot program that reimagines how we respond to mental health calls,” Janey said. “These pilot investments will connect residents – and their families – with the care they need as we bring more safety, justice, and healing to Boston neighborhoods.”
The pilot program will include three response models:
- Co-response will improve and expand dedicated teams of police officers and mental health workers to respond to 911 calls that report a mental health crisis with a safety risk. Implementation of improvements to Boston’s co-response program will begin in September.
Currently, dispatch of co-response takes place on a case-by-case basis. The pilot initiative standardizes this process. Dispatchers will automatically ask if a co-response team is available to respond to mental health calls that pose a safety risk. This component of the pilot will begin in September.
In addition, co-response cars with a police officer and mental health worker can currently be asked to respond to any call type. The pilot will designate dedicated co-response cars, which will only be dispatched to calls that are likely to have a mental health concern. This component of the pilot will begin in October, in Boston Police Districts A1 and B2, in the Downtown/Charlestown and Roxbury neighborhoods.
- Alternative response will deploy teams of Emergency Medical Technicians and mental health workers to respond to 911 calls that report a mental health crisis without a safety risk. Work to develop this model will begin immediately, in partnership with unions representing BPD and EMS employees.
- Community-led response will begin with a facilitated, community-led process to propose a model of mental health response that is led by trained community members who may have lived experience with mental illness and with the communities they’re serving. A request for proposal for the facilitator of the community-led response model will open in September, followed by a community design process that starts in December.
The pilot was developed by the City’s Mental Health Crisis Response Working Group, which included the heads of the Health and Human Services Cabinet, Emergency Medical Services and the Boston Police Department, as well as the Chief of Policy.
The pilot will be funded with $1.75 million from the Health and Human Services Cabinet’s FY22 Budget.
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