Progress in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Florida

Headlines, New Research, Legislation, Events, Community

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HEADLINES

MANKATO - Mobile crisis team reaching out to Brown County, May 29

Horizon Homes, Inc. Crisis Services Director Tina Olson, “We’re here to talk about the South Central Mental Health Crisis Team extending into Brown County since last August. We want people to look at our services as more of an upstream approach. We don’t want to continue to try to access people when they’re in crisis, when they need law enforcement or go to the hospital for things beyond what our services provide.”

MADISON - CARES strives to provide relief to people in mental health crises, May 23

The city’s Community Alternative Response Emergency Services program, called CARES, was founded in 2021 to reduce direct police responses to mental health crises, replacing officers with trained crisis workers and community paramedics. CARES operates as a partnership between the Madison Fire Department and Journey Mental Health, and aims to assess and respond to individuals when they experience mental health crises.

Dispatched by the Dane County Public Safety Communications Center in response to a 9-1-1 call, a two-person CARES team works to de-escalate crises, connect individuals with resources and create safety plans.

The CARES fleet is composed of three vans that are stationed at two fire stations around Madison, each with “Madison Fire Department” labels on their sides. Trunks are filled with supplies that might come in handy during calls, including emergency blankets, water bottles, medications and food.

“Helping people is my forte,” said Eric Kinderman, a CARES crisis worker that has worked for the program since 2022. “I’m a survivor of suicide — I’ve lost family to it, so I have a personal tie.”

The city of Madison’s Community Alternative Response Emergency Services, called CARES, deploys two-person teams consisting of an EMT and a mental health crisis counselor.

DES MOINES - FOCUSS launches second mobile crisis unit equipped with mental health resources, May 27

Nonprofit organization FOCUSS launched its second mobile crisis unit equipped with mental health resources last week. 

FOCUSS founder Darnell Lotman says he always asks himself, "How do we invest back into the community?" With a second unit, Lotman hopes FOCUSS can meet community members where they are and help them during hard times. 

CLEVELAND - Cuyahoga County plans to launch the non-police crisis response program later this summer, May 29, 2024

Cleveland residents want a non-police crisis response program that includes ongoing training and builds trust through existing community organizations, according to a new report. 

FrontLine, which currently handles calls to 988 (the Suicide and Crisis lifeline) and manages a mobile crisis response team, will oversee the initial five teams serving two ZIP codes — 44105 and 44102.

Community members said they want care response team members to get ongoing training “to make sure they have the skills to respond to various situations in a way that is compassionate, effective, and affirming,” the report said. 

People emphasized that training should include how to respond to the LGBTQ+ community and to culturally diverse groups. 

“To serve the diverse communities represented in these ZIP codes, responders should demonstrate cultural humility with respect to race, gender and sexuality, and religion,” the report summarized from responses about responder characteristics. 

SAVE THE DATE
Advancing the Field of Alternative Response

Next year, AMSA partners with the Center for Innovations in Community Safety and The Policing Project to host the next conference - Advancing the Field of Alternative Response - June 3-5, 2025 in person at New York University School of Law and through AMSA online everywhere. Find more details here in upcoming issues.