Providence Weighs Crisis-Response Team for Mental-Health Calls
By Amy Russo | The Providence Journal | April 13, 2021
"Police, fire or mental health?"
That’s the question you might eventually hear after dialing 911.
In a news conference Monday and an official announcement Tuesday, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza revealed that the city is exploring the establishment of a crisis-response team to handle mental-health emergencies.
Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré, also present during the briefings, said the city "ought to be migrating" to a service like CAHOOTS, otherwise known as Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets. The program, launched in 1989 in Eugene, Oregon, involves sending specialized teams of nurses, paramedics and crisis workers to handle mental-health calls rather than dispatching police.
Paré said that "because of the optics and the limited training to deal with someone that’s suffering from mental health," armed officers shouldn't be first responders to those in emotional distress.
“Over the years we’ve asked our police officers to respond to calls that, if you really step back and think, why are we going to these calls?" he said.
In recent decades, more than half of calls initiating a police response in Providence "were for nonviolent, noncriminal matters including behavioral health, substance abuse, chronic homelessness and other quality-of-life issues," according to a report from PFM's Center for Justice & Safety Finance, an outside group the city engaged to conduct an independent budget analysis and operations review of its Public Safety Department.
And in Providence, mental-health crises are widespread. In 2017, according to PFM, 17% of the city's adults reported frequent mental distress.
Overall, PFM found that Providence's public-safety spending is massive, accounting for more than 46% of the city's non-schools general fund budget in fiscal year 2020.
"There are significant resources that go into both police and fire," Elorza said. "However, even with all of the resources that we invest in the Police Department, we know that a lot of calls for service involved issues where someone is suffering from a mental-health episode, and we as a city do not have the kinds of resources, we don't have trained professionals, to meet those needs that the community continues to call on."
In this year's budget, the city set aside up to $150,000 for a behavioral-health and social-service diversion program, opening a request for proposals in February.
That process is expected to conclude later this month.