CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Sending teams to those in behavioral crisis nothing new for Rosecrance

Rockford Register Star - 10/24/2020

Oct. 24--ROCKFORD -- For years, Rosecrance staff have traveled to homes, schools and elsewhere to aid youths and adults in mental health crises.

Those experiences are helping guide the way for a pilot program that starts the first week in November in which Rosecrance staff will routinely accompany city police and Winnebago County sheriff's deputies on 911 calls involving mental health issues.

The aim of the "co-responder model" is not only to save lives but to reduce the time police officers spend at such emergencies as well as hospitalizations, proponents say.

"The goal is to help stabilize a person in their own environment and link to community services," said Carlene Cardosi, regional president of Rockford-based Rosecrance Inc., which operates mental health and substance abuse prevention programs in the Rockford area, McHenry County and central Illinois.

"There's a huge need in all our communities," Cardosi said, especially as substance abuse and tensions rise with isolation and restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. "By the time somebody gets into a crisis, it's really yelling for help," she said.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, Rosecrance's Mobile Crisis Response teams responded to 4,286 calls, including 1,873 in Rockford, the city with the most calls.

Rosecrance is the largest operator in the state of the mobile response program, which is available to low-income individuals. It evolved from the Screening, Assessment and Support Services program that started in the 1980s for children but began providing for adults in 2018.

Individuals call the CARES Hotline at 800-345-9049, operated by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, to report a mental health crisis. A few questions are asked on the phone and the information is given to a mobile crisis response team that must respond to the location within 90 minutes.

Cardosi said individuals should call 911 if a weapon is involved with person in a mental health crisis or if there is a threat of violence.

Rockford police have been responding to an average of two or more calls daily involving suicidal or despondent people.

Mayor Tom McNamara has said that changing how the region responds to mental illness emerged as a common theme after more than 20 public listening sessions held by the city this year. The meetings were organized following the May death of George Floyd in Minneapolis under a police officer's knee.

After the "co-responder" program here begins, Rosecrance staff will be dispatched with police when 911 calls involving behavioral health issues are placed. The goal is to "de-escalate and put someone in a safe place; keep people out of emergency rooms and jail unless that is really needed," Cardosi said.

Cardosi said police have identified some callers to 911 with mental health crises who are "familiar faces." She said the goal is to educate them and others "about services already in the community and remove barriers" so that emergency calls are reduced and individuals get the behavorial health services they need.

Georgette Braun: gbraun@rrstar.com; @GeorgetteBraun

___

(c)2020 Rockford Register Star, Ill.

Visit Rockford Register Star, Ill. at www.rrstar.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.