Three years ago, civilian crisis response seemed an unlikely service in Salem.  But a new Marion County team has been pairing mental health workers with addiction recovery mentors since January to help de-escalate people experiencing a mental health crisis. They recently expanded to operate 24 hours a day. The team’s growth comes as public agencies shifted away from funding crisis teams that include police, instead preferring an approach led by mental health experts. In April, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office disbanded its own crisis team which paired deputies with mental health workers.  People can contact the new team by calling 988, a national mental health crisis and suicide hotline, by calling the Behavioral Health Crisis Center, a 24-7 facility, or through service providers like Northwest Human Services who call to get help for someone. County data shows that the civilian crews have resolved nearly all incidents they’ve been called to without the help of law enforcement officers. But in the six months since the sheriff’s office team disbanded, they’ve only received 90 calls. The sheriff’s office team received six times that number — 554 calls — during the same period last year. “It has been a very slow rollout,” said Debbie Wells, director of the county’s Behavioral Health Crisis Services Division. “Our numbers were lower than what we would like to have seen.” Wells said that’s partly due to low awareness. She said many people aren’t aware of the 988 hotline or don’t understand what services it provides.  If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, help is available. National mental health crisis and suicide hotline: 988 Marion County Behavioral Health Crisis Center: 503-585-4949 Polk County Crisis Services: 503-623-9289 (Weekdays 8 am-5 p.m. excluding holidays); 503-581-5535 or 800-560-5535 (outside regular business hours) Northwest Human Services Hotline: 503-581-5535 or 1-800-560-5535  Oregon teens can contact Lines for Life’s YouthLine daily from 4-10 p.m. to chat confidentially with a trained teen by texting 839863, calling 877-968-8491 or chatting online. Marion County officials are making efforts to raise awareness about the hotline, such as giving out 988 cards at school events and community gatherings, posting regularly on social media, and sharing information with service organizations, sports teams and businesses, according to Wendy Zieker, director of the county’s Public Health Division. The county also recently added the crisis center as a place people can call to contact the teams. Wells said it’s difficult to compare the new team with the previous one because of key differences. “Both programs are valuable and successful in their own ways, each addressing specific needs within the community,” she said in an email. The team that included sheriff’s deputies were in place for 10 years. It responded to calls between 8 a.m. and midnight, as opposed to the 24/7 response for the current civilian team. Dispatchers who received calls for service could also send the sheriff’s office to respond to a person in crisis. The new Community Response Team is only dispatched through the 988 hotline and the crisis center, or if called by police or service providers. “This responsibility lies with 988 and is outside of our control for the time being,” according to Wells. She said the county is looking into adding dispatch as a way for the community to get access to the civilian team. The Salem Police Department and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office also previously paired officers with county mental health workers, but have recently disbanded those teams. But the Oregon Health Authority, which funded such programs, began using federal money that didn’t allow for crisis teams involving police, according to Ryan Matthews, Marion County’s Health And Human Services administrator Public agencies have increasingly turned to mobile crisis response as a more effective and affordable way to handle 911 calls related to mental illness, addiction and homelessness. A similar program in Eugene, CAHOOTS, has received national attention in recent years as more U.S. cities look for alternatives to law enforcement responding to mental health concerns. Marion County’s new Community Response Team started operating in January after a long delay due to difficulties hiring enough workers. The team responds to low-risk incidents to help de-escalate people in crisis and refer them to services. It operates across Marion County, including in cities like Salem. Until recently, the program had a gap in service for around three-and-a-half hours on Sunday through Thursday. But the team hired its newest qualified mental health professional in September, which boosted its coverage to 24/7, according to Wells. The other half of the teams, recovery mentors, generally have personal experience with substance abuse and addiction. Job requirements include a high school diploma or equivalent and being two years in recovery from substance use. Wells said the team’s overnight response is limited on Wednesday through Saturday due to low staff. Just over half of calls the team received reported concerns of suicide, self-harm or risk of self-harm. The rest were a mix of other mental health concerns, agitation or disruptive behaviors, people seeking mental health services and substance use concerns.  Wells said the team members are eager to respond to “just about anything” as long as they believe they can safely remove themselves from the situation if needed.  “Even if we’ve got somebody who is acting very erratically, we will try to approach and engage from a distance,” she said. “If we don’t know where they are in person, we’ll try to get them on the phone, if they have that ability, and try to talk with them that way.” Of the crisis calls the team has received, 34 have come from police, 29 from the community and 14 from the hotline. Another 11 came from people self-reporting that they need help without using the hotline. Most of those calls, 63, concluded with the person in crisis being de-escalated and referred to additional services.  The most common referrals involve short-term case management for people who are homeless or otherwise have trouble getting services. Workers at the crisis center called “navigators” can help them with accessing help such as medical care or rides to appointments. Within three days, the Community Response Team then calls the person to make sure they accessed the services they need – and if not, what prevented them from doing so. Other referrals include services related to behavioral health, addiction treatment, homelessness, domestic violence and disabilities. The team also took a dozen people to the crisis center, took another dozen to the Salem Hospital Emergency Department and failed to make contact with two. One call they received ended with the person in crisis being arrested. The team currently costs around $2.8 million a year to run. The funding primarily comes from the Oregon Health Authority through an agreement with Marion County, as well as from PacificSource, the region’s Medicaid insurer. Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack recently told Salem Reporter that his agency will continue dispatching patrol officers to incidents involving behavioral health issues, as it has mostly done since losing the previous grant funding. He said patrol officers are trained in and capable of handling crisis calls using de-escalation skills when needed. Sgt. Jeremy Schwab, Marion County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said all of the agency’s deputies undergo crisis intervention training through a 40-hour course on how to effectively communicate with people in crisis. They also receive ongoing training related to de-escalation and mental health. Under the new system, Schwab said, “the time it takes for the officers to arrive, make an assessment, call the other teams, and then wait for them to get on scene can be too long.” He also said the person in crisis has to “want” to talk with someone, which wasn’t a requirement when officers were part of the response teams. Wells said that while the teams can’t force somebody to talk with them, they will do everything in their power to engage even if the person doesn’t request their help.  “If we get there and they say, ‘I don’t want to talk to you,’ then we will leave. But we will go and attempt as much as we can,” she said.  On the other side of the Willamette River, Polk County is working to expand its own crisis services separate from police, according to Jennifer Lief, health services division and policy manager. The county already provides crisis services 24 hours a day, including in West Salem, with teams of two responding to calls during the day and one person at night. Lief said she did not have information about the cost of operating the teams or how many calls they have responded to. She said such information would be more available by early 2025. Pok County Sheriff Mark Garton said since losing his agency’s crisis team, deputies just call a mental health worker to respond to incidents involving behavioral health issues. Depending on the circumstances, he said they would make that call on the way to the scene or after arriving.  Garton said the civilian crisis teams always respond when deputies call them and could potentially provide more service than the previous team, if people are more inclined to call 988 than law enforcement. Most times, he said his agency is unaware if the behavioral health division is responding to an incident. He said he is currently helping the behavioral health division work through the new teams’ protocols, including how deputies can keep tabs on those staff in case they need help while responding to a call. RELATED COVERAGE Marion County crisis team gets underway after years of planning Marion County to create mobile crisis teams separate from police UPDATED: Salem City Council wants funding identified for mobile crisis response Salem, United Way halt plans for mental health crisis responder program Salem Budget Committee recommends funding for mobile unit to respond to crisis calls Salem leaders want civilians, not police, to respond to personal crises. They just have to find a way to pay for it Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post New Marion County team resolving crisis calls, but numbers remain low appeared first on Salem Reporter.