One of the county’s largest behavioral health contractors is attributing San Mateo’s 20% drop in mental health holds to a pilot program that pairs clinicians with law enforcement for urgent calls.
The nonprofit StarVista began its Community Wellness Crisis Response Team program in 2021 — although it also works with the cities of South San Francisco, Redwood City and Daly City — as a way to improve responses for residents experiencing mental health crises. While the police department typically receives crisis-related calls, StarVista professionals help assist law enforcement with interactions as a way to de-escalate tense interactions and scenarios.
Data from 2 1/2 years before and after the start of the program showed that the number of 5150 reports decreased from about 1,150 to around 880, even though related mental health calls did not lower during those time periods. A 5150 is when an adult is involuntarily detained in a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization as a result of being gravely disabled, or a danger to themselves or others.
“One of the goals of the program is to alleviate emergency services and pull back the amount of 5150s and provide alternatives to that,” Briana Fair, associate clinical social worker with StarVista, said. “When we go out into the community, we take time to figure out who are their connections, who are their support partners, who are the community partners they’re already connected with, and how can we bring them into the picture to avoid a hospitalization?”
According to police data, the number of 5150s and associated police reports show some increases from 2022 to 2023, although, over the same time period, the number of overall mental health evaluations conducted by police decreased from 385 to 277.
Incorporating more mental health clinicians in scenarios that historically involved only police has picked up in recent years, and additional initiatives are in the works. A mobile crisis response program will soon launch in the city, which is a condition of the recently implemented CARE Act. While there could be some overlap, Police Chief Ed Barberini said StarVista’s community wellness pilot is meant for more immediate threats to individuals’ safety, while the mobile response team will handle less urgent needs.
“The calls for service [the mobile response] group will respond to will be much different than what our clinicians respond to,” Police Chief Ed Barberini said. “The majority of the calls that our clinicians respond to have a public safety component, meaning there’s an immediate need. They’re calling for a police officer or medical personnel, and they need those folks right away.”
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