Depending on where you live, it’s possible that your local police force is overwhelmed with mental health assistance calls in addition to the normal calls for service. Oh, not to mention the constant barrage by some calling for the defunding of the department.

What if there was a way to get people the mental help they needed while at the same time reducing the need for police engagement or the worry that people might end up hurt, arrested, or unnecessarily committed to a hospital?

National Public Radio has a report highlighting a program in New York City that “dispatches mental health specialists and paramedics instead of police for certain nonviolent emergency calls.” During the pilot program, “In 95% of cases, people accepted care from the B-HEARD team, data from the city shows. That's compared with 82% for traditional 911 response teams, which include police.”

To read the whole article: Mental Health Response Teams Yield Better Outcomes Than Police In NYC, Data Shows

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I speak and train on the topic of discovering how the framework of trauma, trust, and hope is the key to impactful leadership. If you would like to know more, please visit my website mrchrisfreeze.com.

Photo by: Mikita Yo on Unsplash