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Feb 12, 2021 - 2:46 pm
The City of Austin has responded to longstanding requests from the community for a more appropriate response to mental health crises that are assigned to APD through 9-1-1. As of February 1, 2021, 9-1-1 callers are now asked if they need police, fire, EMS, or mental health services. Implementing this important fourth option to the 9-1-1 call triage process is part of what is now called the Austin CARES initiative.
The program is an outcome of a series of recommendations commissioned by the City from the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute for Texas (MMHPI). City Council approved a contract with Meadows in October 2020, to work with City and community partners to implement those recommendations.
Austin 911 begins testing period for âmental healthâ option
By Lauren Reid
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin 911 has started offering a new option to callers and Austin may be the first in the country to offer this new option. As of this month, operators have begun testing a fourth question option, Mental Health Services, to the 911 answering script.
The new greeting is Austin 9-1-1, do you need Police, Fire, EMS, or Mental Health Services?
A 911 caller stating they require mental health services initiates an immediate transfer to an on-site mental health clinician or, if a clinician is unavailable, an immediate dispatch of a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) officer.
5 Things Texas: 2021 Economic outlook, Vaccine rollout, Access to care DJ Wilson | Feb 1, 2021
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When we build our agendas for our annual conferences, we wait until as late as possible to get started. Then, we ask our Convening Panel, sponsors and readers this question: What are you spending your mental energy on? We then ask our network to tell us who has the best story to tell about the topics we heard about. This makes our agenda as practical and as actionable as possible.
So, with our 2021 Texas State of Reform Virtual Health Policy Conference coming up later this week, it’s no surprise that the topics we’re watching this month in Texas health care are also topics teed up on our agenda on Thursday, as you’ll see below.