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Board of Health for Madison and Dane County Resolution #2022-13 Authorization to Enter into Memoranda of Understanding with the City of Madison and Journey Mental Health Center, Inc. for Collaborative Mental Health Crisis Response Team Pilot
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In 2021, Public Health Madison and Dane County (PHMDC) and the Madison Fire Department (MFD), began developing the structure and plans for a Community Alternative Response Emergency Services (CARES) program, intended to divert individuals with mental illness from the criminal justice system through a coordinated mental health response from experts in the field and connecting individuals to needed mental health treatment resources.
As a result of this planning process, PHMDC proposes entering into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the City of Madison and Journey Mental Health Center, Inc. to establish a collaborative mental health Crisis Response Team (“CRT”). The CRT is a co-responder model comprised of MFD Community Paramedics, and Journey Crisis Workers. The team will respond to triaged 911 calls for non-violent, behavioral health issues in Madison, as an alternative to police response. PHMDC will provide program management related functions.
The CRT aims to avoid harm to individuals in crisis by intervening in person-centered and trauma-informed ways and to attend to the immediate needs of the individual in crisis. In addition to behavioral health assessment and de-escalation the CRT will provide basic medical treatment to reduce the need for hospitalization care and decrease the chances of furthering mental health decompensation. This MOU establishes operational protocols for the pilot project of the CRT. This is a pilot project, the goal is to expand the project geographically and temporally as informed by the pilot as soon as practicable.
The term of this MOU shall be for one year from March 1, 2022 through February 28, 2023. This MOU may be extended or renewed for successive one year periods upon...
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