Allegheny County alternative response to mental health calls

They call them the “A-team.”Allegheny County’s Alternative Response Program has been working quietly in a rollout of the initiative in Penn Hills and Monroeville. County Executive Sara Innamorato explains they’re behavioral health first responders who can be dispatched by 911.”We’ve co-designed a system that prioritizes de-escalation, mental health expertise and connections to community-based services for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis. This means they’ll receive the right care from the right people at the right time,” Innamorato said in a news conference Tuesday at the Penn Hills Municipal Building.The county says the A-Team can address mental health or other human service-related emergencies. It’s a fourth branch of first responders, joining police, fire and emergency medical services.In nonviolent incidents, they can be an alternative to sending in law enforcement, be teamed with law enforcement or follow up an interaction with police.Next month, the initiative will expand to McKees Rocks and some Allegheny County Housing Authority locations.The county contracted with a nonprofit for the Alternative Response Initiative’s services.”We get a call straight from 911 from the call center whenever they’re requested from the police departments in those municipalities. So as we get a call, our teams get ready, and they hit the ground and are in the van driving within four minutes of that call, ringing our office space,” Jon Chillinsky, director of the A-Team, told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.Currently the team has 28 people on staff. In the past two months, they have responded to 41 calls in the two participating communities.”(In) a lot of our calls, individuals are in a state of psychosis. They are having delusions or escalated (circumstances). Sometimes, we mediate between domestic disputes. Sometimes, we will arrive if it’s a criminal case, but after the police have taken care of the issue on hand there. Or maybe (assist) some family members that are going through a crisis,” Chillinsky said.”This initiative represents a fundamental shift in how we approach public safety and behavioral health here in Allegheny County,” Innamorato said.Monroeville police Chief Doug Cole told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4, “We started seeing mental health issues in Monroeville, a lot more than we’ve ever seen. For example, I always give the numbers I gave. We used to do about four a week of those type of calls. We went to four a day.”The soft rollout of the initiative started in mid-October.”I think this works best countywide. We want to make sure that the right responder responds every time. But it will take time and buy-in from the municipalities and law enforcement agencies,” Erin Dalton, human services director of Allegheny County, told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.Chillinsky said, “There’s a lot of social workers and people with experience that have seen these crises happen that want to get involved, so we haven’t had any shortage of individuals that want to do the work.”Innamorato said, “This is a helpful hand that we are reaching out for those folks who we know are struggling sometimes in very real ways out in public, but sometimes behind closed doors in their homes. This alternative response program has been one of the county’s programs I’m most excited about launching this year.”

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