The city of Austin will begin a pilot program next month that will deploy a multi – disciplinary team to deal with mental health related problems within the downtown area. The team will include professionals from Austin, Travis County EMS, the Austin Police Department (APD) and Integral Care.
As Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mark Escott and his colleagues from EMS, APD and Integral Care explained to the City Council Public Safety Committee last week, the goal of the new team is to develop a plan for dealing with persons experiencing mental health crises. Those people might otherwise end up in police custody or in an emergency medical facility.
Between 2022 and the end of 2024, APD processed more than 867,000 calls. Of those, 11 percent were immediately identified as related to a mental health crisis. Of that 11 percent, 86 percent were resolved without police involvement.
“Our responses to low- and moderate-acuity persons in crisis… has worked well,” Escott said. However, he said the team had “identified a gap in treatment for situations that involve a high risk of harm or imminent danger.”
“We’re not going to go in where there is a gun,” he said.
Escott explained the city has put together a team of professionals to work on not just the most difficult calls but also the “high acuity” calls. During the test period, they will be deployed Monday through Thursday throughout daytime hours in the downtown area. The pilot will continue for six months, after which the team will report back to Council on what they have learned and what steps the city should take next.
“I’m excited about what (the study) can teach us,” said Mayor Kirk Watson.
Council Member Krista Laine said that she was interested in more statistics from the study and a breakdown of the information they already have. Escott said there is some difficulty in gathering information because some of it is with APD, some with EMS and some with Integral Care.
Six years ago, the city received a report from the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute that included recommendations for more teams trained in dealing with mental health crises. The city has followed a number of those recommendations, and this project is the next step in dealing with the ongoing problem of public mental health emergencies.
The institute has also continued to work with Austin providers, including the University of Texas and the Dell Medical School.
ATCEMS Chief Rob Luckritz, Operations Officer of Integral Care Dawn Handley and Police Chief Lisa Davis were enthusiastic about the collaboration between the various agencies. As a result of the training call takers have, Escott said arrests and emergency detentions are down significantly. In addition, the amount of time on the scene has also been reduced for emergency responders.
Now a roving team will try to figure out best practices to improve the city’s response and provide more rapid appropriate treatment.
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