“We out here get forgotten — and out here is where we need help the most.” Crisis response teams have been slower to catch on in rural areas, partly because those areas are bigger and have fewer mental health professionals than cities do.
, said that solid statistics are not available but that small police departments and sheriffs’ offices seem increasingly open to finding alternatives to a standard law enforcement response. Those can include training officers to handle crises better or seeking assistance from mental health professionals, she said.
Jeff White has been assisted several times in recent years by crisis response teams that serve some rural counties in Iowa. White, who has depression and schizophrenia, can now call a state-run hotline and request a visit from mental health workers, rather than being admitted to a psychiatric unit or jailed by police.The counselors help people in mental health crises calm down and then discuss what they need.
The Virtual Crisis Care program helps avoid that situation. Nearly 80% of people who complete its video assessment wind up staying at home, according to a recent state study. In Iowa, the program that helps White always has six pairs of mental health workers on call, said Monica Van Horn, who helps run the state-funded program through the Eyerly Ball mental health nonprofit. They are dispatched via the statewide crisis line or the new national 988 mental health crisis line.
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