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Q&A
Comparison of different mental health response programs in NYC
1:06:17
·
4 min
Council Member Linda Lee requests a comparison of various mental health response programs in New York City, including those with and without police involvement. DOHMH representatives provide a detailed explanation of the different programs and their purposes.
- BeHeard: Accessed through 911, involves social worker and EMS response without police, for emergency situations
- 988 Mobile Crisis Teams: Respond within 2-3 hours for urgent and supportive mental health situations, staffed by social workers and peers
- Co-Response Teams (CRTs): Respond within 24 hours, involve police and social workers for situations with public safety concerns
- The discussion highlights the importance of understanding the appropriate use of each program and suggests creating a simplified guide for staff and constituents
Linda Lee
1:06:17
How do the programs where police are embedded in the responding unit compare to the ones that have no police involvement and what are the differences in terms of outcomes for engagement referral and supportive services?
1:06:29
Just wanting to see what the difference is versus you know the ones that include NYPD versus don't?
Michelle Morse
1:06:36
Can you just specify which programs you want us to compare?
1:06:39
We have a number of programs.
Linda Lee
1:06:40
Well this is one and then I guess I know that some of these other teams perhaps do not include NYPD, I just wanted to know what the difference is there in terms of outcomes.
Michelle Morse
1:06:51
So I guess you're asking us to compare the co response teams to our like mobile crisis teams for example, the 26 teams that we deploy in response to nine eighty eight.
1:07:01
I think it will help us to give you an adequate response if you tell us which programs exactly you want us to compare.
Linda Lee
1:07:07
Yes, so I know that you guys can't speak to BeHeard, but obviously I'm thinking of BeHeard which is with OCMH versus the co response teams versus some of the mobile outreach teams that you all are seeing that don't involve the NYPD.
Michelle Morse
1:07:21
Okay I think what we can do is just specifically describe the difference in the programs between CRT and our mobile crisis teams.
1:07:29
I'll pass to Jamie Nichols to share that.
Jamie Neckles
1:07:32
Yeah thanks.
Linda Lee
1:07:33
Sorry and also go into background a little bit of what like why would CRT be called versus one of the mobile outreach teams, if you could go into that and clarify just for the record also.
Jamie Neckles
1:07:43
Yeah, I think that's important as a starting point because they're really receiving different referrals.
1:07:48
It's not apples to apples for the comparisons.
1:07:52
So BEHEARD is accessed through the 911 system with a social worker and EMS response, right?
1:07:59
There's no police involvement in BEHEARD.
1:08:01
So that's responding on emergency timelines through the emergency response system.
1:08:09
988 is appropriate for urgent and supportive mental health situations.
1:08:18
Anybody can access a mobile crisis team through 988.
1:08:21
Those teams are staffed by social workers and peers typically, and they're responding within two to three hours.
1:08:28
So if you think about sort of an emergency response for BeHeard, an urgent response from 988 to mobile crisis teams, And then co responses dispatched a little bit differently.
1:08:40
They're typically responding within twenty four hours in situations where there may be a need for a social worker and some sort of public safety concern where a police officer would be beneficial.
Linda Lee
1:08:52
So not necessarily for emergency response?
Jamie Neckles
1:08:54
That's correct.
1:08:55
They are not providing emergency response.
1:08:57
They're doing pre and post crisis intervention is how we refer to that.
1:09:01
But I think it's helpful to think about the time frames, right?
1:09:03
We heard emergency, mobile crisis urgent within a few hours, and then co response next day really to prevent something from escalating or to follow-up after something is sort of the acute crisis has passed.
Linda Lee
1:09:19
We should put these on a palm card.
1:09:22
I'm being kind of serious because I think also for the staff of our offices as well as folks that work that actually are on the front lines answering calls from constituents because we do get a lot of calls of our folks asking and as a mental health, I don't know why I'm doing this, mental health professional, as a social worker that did work in the community, it's not always easy to keep track of this and so for me I would say I know maybe slightly more than some folks, but then even with that there's still a lot of confusion and so maybe that's something that we could collaboratively work on because I think we need to make sure that the staff also are equipped with this information for our offices.
1:10:01
So I just wanted to put that out there.
Jamie Neckles
1:10:02
Yeah.
1:10:02
I think it's important.
1:10:03
The simplest way to state it is if you want police, fire, or ambulance, call 911.
1:10:09
If you want anything else mental health related, call 988, And the counselors there will figure it out.
1:10:14
We don't expect anybody to become expert in these acronyms.
1:10:17
That's not reasonable.
1:10:19
So 988 can spend time on the phone with somebody and make the connection on the back end.
Linda Lee
1:10:24
Okay.
1:10:25
I'm going to pause there and then.