VOA新闻杂志2023--US Cities Answer Some Emergency Calls with Mental Health Teams

US Cities Answer Some Emergency Calls with Mental Health Teams

Clear Creek¹ County in Colorado is one of the latest places to begin using mental health teams to answer some emergency 911 calls.

Mental health response teams are not new. Many large cities put such teams in place after the killing² of George Floyd during his arrest by police in Minneapolis in 2020.

Some people believe mental health response teams might be more successful in answering some emergency 911 calls than police. The job of a mental health worker is to help people who have emotional problems or mental sickness. The job of the police is to enforce laws. They are not trained to treat mental health conditions.

In Clear Creek County, the case of Christian³ Glass received a lot of attention. News reports said Glass called the 911 emergency phone number when his car got stuck on the roadside. Police answered the call, but Glass refused to get out of his car.

Later, the police broke the car window. Glass threatened them with a small knife. He was then shot and killed by police. The lawyer for Glass's parents said he was having a mental health crisis⁴. He believed that supernatural beings meant to harm him.

After legal action, Clear Creak County agreed to pay $19 million as a result of the case and two officers face criminal charges.

New York City officials said mental health response teams resolve half of their calls by talking to people or taking them to social services or community health centers. However, the Associated Press (AP) reported that workers for the city's mental health crisis program, called B-HEARD, have had difficulty dealing⁵ with the number of calls and cases. The program answered about two percent of the 171,000 calls throughout the city in 2022.

Carleigh Sailon was a mental health response team supervisor⁶ who used to work in a program in Denver, Colorado. She said mental health teams aim to meet the needs of the community and send the right experts to solve the problems.

Mental health teams may also have more time to spend in response to an emergency call than police. That could be a reason that mental health response teams might be more successful than police in answering some 911 calls.

For example, a mental health team responded to a 911 call about a homeless man in Denver, Colorado. The team spent three hours helping⁷ the man get a form of identification⁸, food, and medications. They also took him to a shelter designed to house homeless people. Police might spend 10 to 90 minutes on a call.

This would not be long enough to help a homeless person.

At least 14 of America's 20 biggest cities are using mental health teams to answer some emergency 911 calls. New York City, Los Angeles; Houston, Texas; and Columbus, Ohio, spent almost $125 million on their programs. Smaller cities are also starting to use the teams.

The AP reports that federal government information is incomplete⁹ on how effective mental health response teams are. But a recent study of a mental health response program in Denver from Stanford University suggested they have good results. The 2022 study found that, in some Denver neighborhoods where the programs were in place, few small crimes were reported while violent crimes remained unchanged.

At a conference discussing mental health teams in Washington, D.C. this spring, officials from several cities discussed using mental health response teams. They said they faced difficulties in finding enough trained mental health workers, training workers at 911 call centers and sending unarmed civilians¹⁰ into situations that could be dangerous.

However, an official for New York's B-HEARD program believes the effort is important.

Laquisha Grant is with the New York Mayor's Office of Community Mental Health. She said, "We really think that every single B-HEARD response is just a better way that we, the city, are providing care to people."

Words in This Story

stuck –adj. unable to move; trapped in a spot or place

 

supernatural –n. unable to be explained by science or laws; seeming to come from something beyond this world

1 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

5 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

6 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 identification   

n.视为同一，证明同一，确认

参考例句：

• He's made a formal identification of the body.他正式确认了死者身份。
• We should have identification card on the person when we go out.我们外出时应随身携带身份证。

9 incomplete   

adj.不完全的，不完善的

参考例句：

• The building was left incomplete.那座楼没有完工就停下来了。
• His novel was incomplete when he died.他死的时候他的小说没有写完。

10 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。