In San Antonio and Denver, two cities with pressing mental health needs, innovative crisis response programs are providing hope and reshaping the way emergency services cater to individuals in psychological distress. San Antonio’s Community Outreach and Resiliency Effort (SA CORE) and Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) are different systems rooted in a shared objective: to address mental health calls received by emergency services effectively.
Chief William McManus of the San Antonio Police Department emphasized the significance of these specialized response teams. “Police officers were never equipped to deal with mental health calls,” McManus had earlier told
KSAT
. “We are not the expert.” The SA CORE team, established in 2022, consists of a mental health unit police officer, a fire department paramedic, and a crisis response clinician. The team responded to a notable 2,958 calls from January to September in 2024, as per
KSAT’s report.
Doubling down on the need for these services, Isaac Gomez, a paramedic with the SA CORE team, reinforced the program’s critical role. “It’s a game changer,” Gomez stated, as reported by
KSAT
, “We’re here, we’re here to stay and we’re here to make a difference.” The SA CORE program has expanded to offer round-the-clock service across San Antonio with three teams, a considerable scaling up from its inception as a single unit covering just the downtown area.
Meanwhile, the STAR program in Denver has taken a different approach. Under its community-response model of care, STAR teams are comprised of a behavioral health clinician paired with a paramedic, conspicuously omitting the presence of police officers. Alan Moreland, the paramedic supervisor at Denver Health Medical Center, conveyed the value of their approach. “We’re giving people hope,” Moreland told
KSAT
, “This is the gap in the system that needs to be filled.” STAR operates seven days a week, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and plans to expand to a 24/7 model are slated for 2025.
Both cities have seen the efficacy of these programs not just in responding to calls but also in the potential for revamping the entire approach to mental health crises. According to reports by
Headtopics
, these teams have shown that it is possible to assist individuals in crisis effectively and compassionately, thereby preventing tragedy and fostering community trust in emergency services.
Note: Thank you for visiting our website! We strive to keep you informed with the latest updates based on expected timelines, although please note that we are not affiliated with any official bodies. Our team is committed to ensuring accuracy and transparency in our reporting, verifying all information before publication. We aim to bring you reliable news, and if you have any questions or concerns about our content, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!
Leave a Reply