Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
ABSTRACT Hennepin County 911 Alternative Mental Health Response Project (ALT) SAMHSA Community Crisis Response Partnerships Grant NOFO No. SM-22-016 Hennepin County Behavioral Health will implement a 911 Alternative Mental Health Response (ALT) pilot in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. ALT teams consisting of a senior social worker and a community paramedic will respond to low-risk 911 behavioral health calls for service instead of BPPD officers, reducing disparities in justice system involvement for people with mental health disorders and connecting them to stabilizing mental health and social services. ALT teams will assess and respond to urgent behavioral health and medical needs at the scene and stabilize the person in the community or via voluntary transport to Hennepin County’s walk-in / drop-off behavioral health clinic. ALT will also work closely with BPPD’s existing embedded social workers to provide follow-up stabilization services. Over a 45-month implementation period, ALT teams will respond to 4,500 911 mental health calls, reducing the number of mental health calls currently responded to by BPPD officers by 95%, and perform an estimated 3,000 field assessments. The targeted benefits are a 30% increase in connections to stabilizing services for residents involved in 911 mental health calls and a 30% decrease in repeat 911 mental health calls. The lead applicant is Hennepin County’s Behavioral Health Division and the partnering applicant is the Brooklyn Park Police Department (BPPD). Additional partners include the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates 911 dispatch, and North Memorial Health, a Level 1 Trauma Center that will provide the community paramedic. A Hennepin County 911 Mental Health Reform Task Force consisting of mental health and justice partners, youth and adults with lived experience of mental health disorders, and BIPOC residents invested in police reform will serve as the project advisory board. Brooklyn Park (population 86,478) is the fourth largest city in the Twin Cities, Minnesota metro area and part of Hennepin County (Minneapolis and its suburbs). It is significantly more racially diverse than the city of Minneapolis, with 60% of residents identifying as BIPOC (30% African American, 20% Asian, 5% Hispanic, and 5% as multi-racial or other identities). Twenty-four percent of residents are foreign-born and 9.2% percent have income below the federal poverty line (2020 US Census data). Brooklyn Park has the highest crime rate in Hennepin County, with 7,820 total crimes in 2020 (90 crimes per 1,000 residents vs. 59.7 for Minneapolis). Brooklyn Park also has over 300 group homes that serve people living with mental illness and/or additional disabilities in congregate care settings. Having police officers respond to 911 mental health calls is contributing to racial disparities in justice system involvement, increasing the potential for escalation, and failing to provide needed mental health, primary care, and stabilizing services. By dispatching ALT teams to 95% of 911 mental health calls in Brooklyn Park, the Hennepin County 911 Alternative Mental Health Response project will produce better outcomes for both public safety and residents with mental health disorders in Brooklyn Park.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
