CHICAGO (CBS) — A dedicated team is hard at work in Chicago, sent to handle hundreds of mental health calls that had the potential to become fatal, but you may not have heard of.
The Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) program sends a mental health professional and an emergency medical technician — not police officers or firefighters — to respond to mental health emergency calls between 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. in select parts of the city.
Many people living in the communities the CARE team serves may not know the program exists, but data shows demand is higher than ever.
Ashley Robinson, a 911 and EMT dispatcher, is part of the District 1 CARE team, and her truck is equipped with basic paramedic gear, with some unique additions.
“We have blankets for those who are cold,” she said. “We have the basic necessities — Narcan, fentanyl strips, underwear, socks, toiletries, because a lot of people need toiletries.” “Hats, gloves and shorts.”
Teams are sent to low-risk emergency calls that dispatchers identify as having a mental health component.
The whole point is to calm the situation, and help avoid such a tragic situation One in Little Village last week, when police shot and killed a man armed with a knife after his girlfriend called 911 for help.
“We typically don't respond to calls that individuals have weapons, but there are times when we don't know, and we're told they weren't there, and when we got to the scene, they did have weapons, and we were able to locate them,” said Tiffany Patton Burnside, director of crisis services for the department. Chicago Public Health: “We are working with individuals who may have had this happen and were able to calm and defuse the situation.”
In the past four weeks alone, the CARE team has responded to 60 mental health calls, Burnside said.
“We've had individuals whose goals were not to be here, and now they're still here,” she said.
Sometimes the CARE team is able to accomplish this by simply providing something as simple as a snack and comfortable clothing.
“Sweaters, pants and shoes with insoles for heat and winter,” Robinson said.
Chicago Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Garren Gatewood said that while alternative response models like the CARE team can be met with skepticism, the data so far shows they work.
“I'm glad we had this conversation. Now viewers will know that this is something the city of Chicago offers,” he said.
Between September 2021 and September 2024 – The CARE team responded to over 1,500 calls resulting in no arrests and the use of force in less than 0.1% of incidents.
“This shows that this model can work,” Gatewood said.
Because of this need, their city recently committed to expanding the CARE program from four police districts to six, Gatewood said. He eventually hopes to expand the program citywide.
“It will be a great day,” he said. “We're working on it piece by piece. You know, in an ideal world, we would have 24/7 coverage, but we're not there yet, but we'll keep working to get there, to make that happen. Make sure that Every person in need throughout our city has the resources needed.”
Another unique part of this team is that they follow up with the individuals they help — usually after a day, after a week, after a month — to check in on them and see if they need additional support.
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Megan Hickey
