The Washington Post (6/20, Waters) reported “cities around the country are looking into or already pursuing” efforts to divert some emergency calls to mental health workers rather than police. For example, CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) is a Eugene, Oregon-based service “that sends a mental health crisis worker and EMT, rather than police, to people in mental health distress.” In Phoenix, a “consortium of nonprofit agencies led by Solari Crisis and Human Services, has built a crisis line and mobile response system that, in one recent 30-day period, handled 20,000 calls and dispatched mobile crisis teams composed of a mental health clinician and a paraprofessional – and not police – 2,200 times.”
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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)