NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – The City of New Orleans is launching a new program to assist people in mental health crises.
The Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit will either be dispatched in place of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) or EMS, or alongside the agencies.
Last fall, Mayor Latoya Cantrell signed a $3.1 million contract with the nonprofit Resources for Human Development to provide an alternative dispatch service, and that’s blossomed into the New Orleans Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit, also known as the MCIU, which soft launched June 1.
“Until June 1, if you or a loved one had an acute mental health crisis and you called 911, you really only had two options: EMS, if it sounded medical, or NOPD,” New Orleans Health Department Director Dr. Jennifer Avegno explained.
Not anymore. The MCIU, a team of trained mental health professionals, is available 24 hours a day every day of the year.
“If it is a nonviolent behavioral health call, the 911 dispatcher will transfer the call immediately to a MCIU crisis worker,” Avegno said. “If that crisis worker then determines a mobile unit is needed, an MCIU team will be dispatched to the scene immediately.”
Since the program’s launch, the MCIU has responded to more than 90 calls, including one in which they assisted a person who barricaded themselves in their home.
“He called her back, five minutes into it, he walked out of the house with his hands up,” Tyesha Davis, the program director for Resources for Human Development, said. “If he had a weapon, he put that weapon down, and he wanted to talk to [theMCIU team member]. At that time, Jasmine was there to be able to do what she needed to do.”
According to NOPD Interim Superintendent Michelle Woodfork, her department has already seen a significant burden reduction regarding calls officers aren’t equipped to handle.
“It allows us to answer other calls for service,” Woodfork said. “It allows us to handle those calls that are higher priority, get to them quicker. It brings our response times down, so this is absolutely needed tool for the NOPD.”
There will be two MCIU units, which is made up one mental healthcare licensed professional and one certified crisis intervention team member, during the day, two units at night, and one unit overnight.
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