Caring for the Criminalized

Plus - mobile program cut in Berkeley, Massey work to continue, huzzah for Evanston CARE

Welcome new AMSA members VNS Health, Cognitive Justice, Ohio State University Division of Health Management and Policy

AMSA MEETINGS

Georgia State Collective - Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: July 31, 10:00 AM ET

Upcoming in-person meeting in Atlanta at The Carter Center
Date/Time: August 18 - Logistical details to come
Facilitated by Dietra Hawkins

TOMORROW - Colorado State Collective Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: July 15, 3:00 pm MT, facilitated by Samantha Bunecke

Illinois State Collective Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: July 24, 2:00 PM CT, facilitated by Alexander Heaton

Oregon State Collective Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: July 21, 3:00 PM PT, facilitated by Andre Miller

Data Special Interest Group Sign-up: ZOOM
Date/Time: August 19, 2026 10:00 AM PT

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HEADLINES

BERKELEY - City slashes 2 safety net programs — a mental health crisis team and a homeless shelter (Berkeleyside)

In closing a $30 million deficit last month, Berkeley leaders dismantled some longstanding pieces of the city’s social safety net by eliminating a groundbreaking mental health crisis team and shuttering a winter shelter that served many older homeless residents.

The Mobile Crisis Team, a mental health response unit that has operated alongside Berkeley police since 1979 and may have been the first of its kind in the nation, will shut down this month. Clinicians, advocates and city workers warn that the cuts will leave vulnerable residents with fewer places to turn, while police — who are also facing a staffing crisis — will be the default responders to even more psychiatric emergencies.

The cuts come in the wake of other closures of mental health and homelessness services.

The city’s Specialized Care Unit, a non-police mental health response team, was handed off to Alameda County last year, after years of understaffing, lack of funding and slow response times. And last month, the Berkeley Wellness Center, an arts-focused space for people living with mental illness, shuttered after losing funding from Alameda County. Both closures were driven in part by Proposition 1, a 2024 state measure that restructured behavioral health funding more toward housing and addiction and away from general community programs.

Facing $30M deficit, Berkeley eliminates Mobile Crisis Team, reduces shelters, wellness services (Daily Californian)