The last year of the pandemic has exacerbated Oakland’s already high rates of mental health-related 911 calls, said the Oakland Police Department Mental Health Unit Supervisor.
Sergeant Doria Neff commented on the situation in a Facebook Live Q&A Wednesday.
"We’ve seen sort of a blossoming of the complexity of the calls and the number of calls," said Neff. Along with mental health, a lot of those in crisis are also experiencing substance use issues and lack of housing, she added.
And the last year hasn’t helped. As of right now, Alameda County has the highest number of involuntary detentions in the state of California, said Neff.
OPD has used different methods for addressing the crisis, such as training officers in crisis intervention and deploying teams of officers partnered with behavioral health clinicians to answer mental health calls.
It’s still difficult though, Neff acknowledged. They receive around 40 to 45 calls in a 24-hour period just related to mental health alone. And that’s a conservative estimate, she added. "It is a ton of calls."
A lot are repeat calls from people who aren’t able to get the help they need through other support systems, such as legal or behavioral health. "We are one small piece of a very large pie," said Neff.
But through the new MACRO program, Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland, some 911 calls will be directed to a two-person team consisting of a paramedic and a counselor or outreach worker, instead of the police.
The program is being run by the Oakland Fire Department and Neff is looking forward to working with them as the kinks are being ironed out.
"There’s going to be a learning curve," she said. "We want to be partners, we want to work together with the MACRO unit."
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