PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia’s mobile crisis response system has made progress but still faces challenges, according to testimony at a City Council hearing Monday.
Interim Behavioral Health Commissioner Marquita Williams testified that mobile crisis response teams responded to thousands of calls last year, with most resolved on the scene. Involuntary commitments were down 17% and a small fraction of cases were referred to police.
“The primary goal of mobile crisis response teams is to stabilize individuals in the community whenever possible, minimizing the need for hospitalization,” Williams said.
Williams also said she was pleased that the response time was 50 minutes, the national benchmark, but Councilmember Jaime Gauthier said she’d like to see that reduced to 30 minutes.
“I consider these to be emergency services. I consider these to be lifesaving services,” Gauthier said.
She says ongoing challenges include high turnover among frontline staff, which also hurts efforts to increase the speed of response times.
The department is also facing a possible transition with a major response team provider, West Philadelphia Mental Health Consortium, which could lose its contract with the city over accounting irregularities.
The city began its crisis intervention approach after Walter Wallace, in the grip of a mental health episode, was shot by police in fall 2020.
“I’ll never forget that day and what happened,” Gauthier said.
The city has a 988 crisis line, co-located with 911 dispatchers and four mobile response team providers that operate 24/7 citywide. A list of more programs and services can be found here.