Community Response Teams Address Mental Health Crises in Texas

Across the United States, police, jail officials, and emergency room physicians are often the only service providers available around the clock to respond to people with mental health conditions and substance use disorders.
But there is another way.
The Pew Charitable Trusts, in partnership with Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, is supporting a national effort to encourage communities to offer a continuum of appropriate services in the form of Multi-Disciplinary Response Teams (MDRT).
In Abilene, Texas, response teams have seen success in both diffusing potentially volatile situations and caring for those in need.
"If you're a counselor in a crisis situation, it's one and done," says mental health clinician Andrea Reyes, a member of one of Abilene's two community response teams. "But with this job, we talk to the person on the worst day of their lives. Then we follow up, see people in the hospital, and see them getting on medication or getting a job. Kids who wanted to die end up sending us an invitation to their graduation."
For more on community response teams, read the full story in Trust magazine, "When People Face a Mental Health Crisis, What's the Best Response?"
*Note: The video was updated on January 11, 2023 to correct an error in the name of Pew's partner, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.