Mental health advocates, prevention organizers, allies and members of this community of accountability united to share affordable and accessible resources for suicide prevention awareness during Suicide Prevention Month, which is remembered each September. For the first time in New York City’s history, in June 2021 the city launched a pilot program with the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD). This division is made up of both mental health and physical health professionals who are responding to traditional 911 calls for those enduring a mental health crisis. They also include emergency trained social workers, medical technicians and paramedics. The trial began June 6 and lasted until July 7 with a goal to approach mental health as a public health problem rather than a public safety issue.
In B-HEARD’s trial results, they detail that when dispatched, they arrive in a non-transport vehicle that has the same basic life support equipment as an ambulance. The B-HEARD team offers mental and physical assessments on-site and connects the person to crisis counseling and, with their consent, follow-up services. When considering addressing one’s own or another person’s state of mental health, it is crucial to understand what a mental health emergency is. According to B-HEARD, an emergency is often defined by “an immediate risk of a person hurting their self or another person.” It may also be an imminent danger due to a health condition. With this in mind, a behavioral health crisis is defined as a “non-life threatening in which a person is experiencing intense behavioral, emotional, or a psychiatric response.”
Statistics specified that in 95 percent of mental health cases, people received assistance from B-HEARD in comparison to 82 percent from a traditional 911 call response. Fifty percent of people were transported to the hospital for additional care which is a lower percentage than the traditional police response at 82 percent. Everyone who was served and cared for by B-HEARD were offered follow-up care, which included assistance from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene team, as well as the Department of Homeless Services and other hospital-based programs.
In June 2020, dontcallthepolice.com was founded as a service that provides emergency and crisis services. On their website, they list sources by city in housing, LGBTQ+, mental health, domestic violence, sexual assault, youth, elders, crime, substance abuse and more. They mention on their website that “90 percent of situations in which police are called, there are safer alternatives addressed by people with expertise and without guns and other various weapons.” B-HEARD and Don’t Call the Police have been formed because calling the police does not equate to the work that social workers and crisis counselors can do. Police are not trained to address mental health or substance abuse issues and therefore have a history of escalating situations at a rapid rate, sometimes resulting in death.
According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, one in five adults in America have a mental illness. Resources such as B-HEARD in New York City and dontcallthepolice.com prevent violence against people with mental illness. This is incredibly important in understanding that there is and has been a structural failure of affordable and accessible services and resources for mental health, especially for communities of color. This failure is intensified due to the trauma of violence against communities of color by police, and there is a greater likelihood that an officer would use violent and deadly force towards such communities. This increases when a person’s identity intersects these communities or is a sex worker, an immigrant, or of a lower socioeconomic class. Collectively, resources like these are formed to protect the people against police violence and together they pose the questions: How can we redefine public safety for those with mental illness when our currently primary public safety resource is not safe? What would it look like if we prioritized community outreach, mental health care and restorative justice in the face of violence?
Resources:
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/public_information/b-heard-public-faqs-5-27-2021.pdf
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/23/1019704823/police-mental-health-crisis-calls-new-york-city
Resources by city
https://www.nami.org/nami/media/nami-media/infographics/generalmhfacts.pdf