Q&A
911 dispatch training and routing for mental health crisis calls
1:06:58
·
4 min
Council Member Lee inquires about the training 911 dispatchers receive for handling mental health crisis calls and how these calls are routed. Representatives from NYPD and FDNY provide information on dispatcher training and the process of routing mental health calls to EMS.
- 911 operators receive 90 days of training, including a full day on mental health scenarios
- Mental health calls are connected to EMS for additional triaging
- EMS dispatchers receive 10 weeks of training plus ongoing training on new procedures
Linda Lee
1:06:58
okay.
1:06:58
Right.
1:06:59
As as everything is very confusing.
1:07:01
Absolutely.
1:07:01
In the state.
1:07:02
Okay.
1:07:03
Which is which is I think we're gonna get to this whole theme in a large part of my concerns because and you hit the nail on the head because I mean, as someone who works in the mental health sector before, and I'm a social worker as well, I'm familiar with the different outreach teams like ACT, IMT, AOT, all of those things.
1:07:21
Right?
1:07:21
But I think to the general public, it's very hard to sometimes distinguish what and when each of these outreach teams are appropriate.
1:07:29
And so I just wanna just simplify this, right, if I'm calling 911, and I'm experiencing mental health crisis.
1:07:35
And we all know, as mentioned before, that the 911 dispatchers have a tremendously difficult job.
1:07:41
Right?
1:07:42
Are they aware of all the different outreach teams?
1:07:45
And can you speak to and this is for any of you here because I don't know who would best speak to this, but can you speak to and I'll go more into depth about this, but the training that the 911 dispatch receive, as well as if they are aware of all of these programs that we have available.
Ebony Washington
1:08:04
Hi, good morning.
1:08:07
So I'm sorry, can you just repeat that again?
Linda Lee
1:08:09
Sure, sure.
1:08:10
So, you know, considering that we have multiple outreach teams that are available.
1:08:15
Right?
1:08:15
If I call 911 and I'm experiencing a mental health crisis, maybe it's not quite an emergency.
1:08:21
Maybe it could turn into an emergency, which is why I think it's so difficult for some of the 911 dispatchers.
1:08:27
If you could speak to the level of trainings that they receive, whether they have all of this information available to them, and how they are trained to appropriately route these calls to either be heard or one of the other outreach teams.
Ebony Washington
1:08:42
Okay.
1:08:43
So in in New York City 911 operators receive 90 days training.
1:08:51
During that training, they receive about 25 days of hands on training where they're actually sitting with an operator, an experienced operator.
1:09:01
As far as mental health, it is a full day training by a certified instructor.
1:09:07
Okay, giving them all types of scenarios that they may encounter.
1:09:12
As a policy, we always connect the person calling to EMS.
1:09:21
Okay?
1:09:22
We don't medically triage.
1:09:25
So our policy is to connect to EMS.
Linda Lee
1:09:29
Okay.
1:09:29
So the 911 dispatchers would call and contact EMS And then from there, they're automatically dispatched to the scene.
Cesar Escobar
1:09:41
Good morning.
1:09:43
I'll give you a little brief Sorry.
1:09:46
Orientation of that.
Linda Lee
1:09:47
Sorry.
1:09:47
Hold on one second.
1:09:48
Can we just make sure that outside is a little quiet because I just wanna make sure that everyone hears what you're saying.
1:09:53
Sorry.
1:09:54
Thank you.
Cesar Escobar
1:09:56
Okay.
1:09:57
So you're correct.
1:09:59
The 911 call will come in.
1:10:02
And NYPD dispatcher will take the call, classify it as a mental health emergency, and it will be moved over to EMS for additional triaging.
1:10:17
Our dispatchers go through 10 weeks of training to become assignment receiving dispatchers.
1:10:25
Those are the members of EMS that take in the calls.
1:10:28
They will be the ones that will ask additional questions of the caller to be able to target these calls to the appropriate resources.
1:10:39
The members of our emergency medical dispatch do an amazing job.
1:10:43
They handle 1,600,000 calls a year.
1:10:46
These are 1,600,000 calls that all have to get triaged questions asked so that we can send the appropriate resources.
1:10:58
We also have at emergency medical dispatch dispatchers that get an additional 10 weeks of training to be able to dispatch those calls to the appropriate resources.
1:11:08
In addition, our members and communications get ongoing training when new procedures come out regarding mental health emergency.
1:11:17
So they are aware of some of their services.
1:11:20
They are aware of the herd, and they dispatch the all the calls that come in, you know, using computerized triage algorithm to to be able to categorize the calls appropriately for be heard.
Linda Lee
1:11:36
Okay.
Jamie Neckles
1:11:37
Can I add to this?
