D.C. is altering the way it handles psychological well being 911 calls and says it is already making an affect.
Nearly 25% of individuals shot by police within the U.S. annually are experiencing a psychological well being disaster, in keeping with a 2020 report from the Nationwide Affiliation of State Psychological Well being Program Administrators.
That grim statistic motivated D.C. to develop a pilot program that makes use of behavioral well being specialists to answer sure psychological health-related 911 calls as a substitute of police.
“What occurs generally while you insert legislation enforcement in one thing that’s not a disaster, it will possibly truly flip it into one thing greater than it actually wanted to be,” D.C. Workplace of Unified Communications interim Director Cleo Subido stated.
She stated this system has been a hit to date. From June to September, roughly 315 calls have been routed to the D.C. Division of Behavioral Well being.
That is solely about 2% of psychological health-related 911 calls in D.C., however Subido says part one was designed firstly to make sure the protection of everybody concerned in an incident. Section two comes with a workers improve, permitting group response groups to answer extra calls.
“We wish to do what’s proper and what’s finest, and if we will try this, particularly now in an age the place we will switch data so simply, it is sensible,” Subido stated.
Comparable applications have been or might be launched in additional than a dozen states throughout the nation. American College professor John Firman stated the applications signify a shift in views of the standard legislation enforcement-centered 911 system into what he calls a multi-agency response that advantages the police and the general public.
“If we’re fastidiously assessing calls, ensuring what the extent of menace is, and both sending groups out or people out to be extra productive and to be extra helpful, once more, I couldn’t be extra excited,” Firman stated. “That is the place we wanted to be for a very long time.”
At their core, applications like these purpose to scale back deadly encounters between police and folks in psychological well being misery.
It received’t cease all of them, however Subido stated doing nothing just isn’t an choice.
“We actually imagine and we all know that that is the very best factor for the individuals of the District, and that’s actually what that is about,” she stated.
