Stockton approves pilot program to send crisis intervention workers to some 911 calls

A crisis intervention response pilot program that community members have advocated two years for is one step closer to becoming a reality.

At the July 26 meeting, Stockton City Council unanimously approved a $5.76 million contract with Community Medical Centers to design and launch a three-year crisis intervention response pilot program. The funds will come from the more than $78 million American Rescue Plan Act dollars the city was allotted from the federal government.

The program, which will be established through CMC's Care Link Community Response program, will provide an alternative dispatch response to non-violent and low-level 911 calls for behavioral health intervention.

This means that instead of fire or police crews, crisis intervention workers will respond to situations in which individuals are suffering from behavioral health crises like thoughts of suicide and intoxication, and conduct welfare checks.

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The program is modeled after others across the nation.

Councilmember Kimberly Warmsley, who has a background in mental health as a licensed clinical social worker, told The Record that the program coming to Stockton is "a dream come true" for her.

Warmsley said she believes the program will not only benefit individuals who are experiencing mental health concerns, but the city's police officers as well.

"I see this as an opportunity to help with the bandwidth that our officers currently face," Warmsley said. "I also see this as an opportunity for those who are experiencing mental health concerns to get the direct care in a more intentional means because now, we're mobilizing providers to communities and individuals who are struggling."

Warmsley said she once worked as a crisis response clinician at a local hospital and saw firsthand how much time officers who respond to mental health crisis calls spend at the hospital.

"They're sitting with residents in the emergency department who are experiencing mental health trauma or toxic stress, or a psychotic break," Warmsley said. "They're writing up 5150s (a legal hold which allows a person with a mental health challenge to be involuntarily detained for a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization). This takes so much time of the officers."

The crisis intervention response pilot program will initially run part-time, operating with one team for three days a week during peak hours, CMC CEO Christine Noguera said. The team will be made up of a licensed clinician, an outreach worker and a case manager, and utilize the Care Link vans as response vehicles.

Noguera added that the goal is for the program to eventually run full-time, with three to four teams providing services for seven days a week.

Crisis intervention workers are expected to start responding to calls by the end of the year, according to city officials.

Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden endorsed the program at the July 26 meeting, saying it will be "phenomenal." He said his experience with similar models in San Jose, where he was previously deputy chief of the San Jose Police Department, were "very effective."

"I think a lot of folks don't realize how far you can go with a program like this," McFadden said. "In hostage and barricade situations, historically we're used to having the loudspeakers of officers shouting for the person to come out the house. Well, now we have a commission that can mitigate the situation, that has that skillset at the scene."

McFadden said policing has changed and now it's about "having the right people at the scene at the right time."

"The partnership (with CMC) will be strong," McFadden said.

Read more: New California efforts seek to shift mental-health calls away from police

Mayor Kevin Lincoln said he believes this is an "innovative solution" to the mental health crisis Stockton, and the rest of the nation, is experiencing.

"The public needs to know that this council is committed to addressing the root cause of the challenges that are impacting our community," Lincoln said. "This is one of many examples of how this council is committed to providing the solutions that will address the root cause and provide the type of healing that our community needs for the foreseeable future."

Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow. 

This article originally appeared on The Record: Crisis intervention workers to respond to Stockton 911 calls