The city of San Luis Obispo is accepting all the help it can get to improve mental health services in the region.
In June, SLO rolled out a mobile crisis unit to prevent and reduce homelessness. Unlike the SLO Community Action Team (CAT) that’s more proactive and patrols areas, the mobile crisis unit is response-oriented and dispatched out to people in need.
“It also has the ability to provide transport to other services, like needing to get to local homeless shelters,” said city Emergency Manager James Blattler.
Blattler added that since its inception in mid-June until July 22, the mobile crisis unit that’s embedded in the city’s fire department made 69 outreach runs (39 proactively and 22 as response calls) and eight transportation runs. Costing more than $300,000 this fiscal year, the pilot program is meant to be used as a non-emergency service that can help link people with resources when going through challenges pertaining to mental health, drug and alcohol addiction, and homelessness. The unit comprises a caseworker and an emergency medical technician, as an effort to step away from law enforcement intervention.
In fact, the mobile crisis unit isn’t the only available resource moving away from local police. On July 16, California launched the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, and SLO residents can dial those three digits to connect with the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
“It’s an alternative to calling 911 for people,” said Michael Kaplan, the community engagement director for Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA). “Over time, we’re hoping that the Central Coast Hotline would be part of the 988 line.”
Operating for more than 40 years, the Central Coast Hotline—(800) 783-0607—is a round-the-clock information service that specializes in providing local resources and references for mental health challenges. TMHA has been running it for the past decade. While Kaplan acknowledged that the 988 line is a step in the right direction in terms of gathering as many mental health resources as possible, he questioned the more widespread nature of the national line.
“They are both valuable, and one is extremely easy to remember [988]. We haven’t talked to too many people who have used that line, but we don’t know where that call goes to. If you’re looking for local help and resources, I don’t know how efficient it would be,” he said.
Kaplan added that the 988 line in California operates through roughly 12 big call centers and that’s not enough. TMHA advertises both the national and local hotlines in their awareness efforts. Kaplan informed New Times that they even have a catchphrase: “There are two ways to get help—one a little quicker and one a lot more SLO.”
While the Central Coast Hotline received upgraded call systems thanks to a recent $550,000 investment from MUST! charities, Kaplan and his team are already thinking of ways to conflate the 988 line with it.
“My biggest concern is that folks might call the 988 line expecting to connect with the Central Coast Hotline,” he said. “With the approval of the Behavioral Health Department, we will be approaching the powers that be that run the 988 line directly.” Δ
This article appears in 55 Fiction 2022.
Good luck, and safe interventions, to the crisis unit. I hope it makes a difference. I also hope that all of your situations were accurately reported by party reporting them, and don’t involve guns or other deadly weapons. Someone can be in the midst of a mental health crisis, and still be very dangerous.