Sacramento has an alternative to 911 for mental health crises. Too few people know about it | Opinion

At a 2020 budget hearing, Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy directed county staff to research alternatives to 911 for individuals experiencing mental health crises. Today, Sacramento’s Community Wellness Response Team has been in operation for almost two years.

This team has successfully demonstrated its proof of concept — that trained, unarmed mental health counselors and peer specialists can successfully respond to mental health crises without anyone being injured. In fact, they have responded to over 900 calls for service since its inception. Hot moments are being cooled, triggering situations are being de-escalated and people are getting connected to the services they need.

Never heard of the Community Wellness Response Team? You aren’t alone. Most Sacramento County residents haven’t.

Recently, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office implemented a new policy against responding to mental health calls for services that do not involve a crime on a person with a weapon. Instead, they will promote the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline more, operated regionally by WellSpace Health. Calls coming into the Sheriff’s Office will now be transferred directly to the crisis line when a mental health call doesn’t involve a crime.

While 988 is a fantastic resource, it does not have a mobile response component. That’s where the Community Wellness Response Team comes in. A result of the community’s push for alternatives to 911 for mental health crisis calls, the team is a clinician and peer support specialist response in the community — people wearing plain clothes and arriving in an unmarked van. They have direct access to law enforcement if they determine that law enforcement presence is needed on scene, and they are also able to transport someone to the Sacramento Mental Health Urgent Care Clinic or to a psychiatric facility if the person volunteers to go.

The team can be connected directly by calling (916) 999-HOPE (-4673). If you call the team directly, you may experience extended wait time for someone to answer the phone due to staffing limitations. You can also access it through 988, and are more likely to get connected to the Community Wellness Response Team through 988 if you ask for it specifically.

But for the Community Wellness Response Team to fill the gap in service left by the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office, this program is going to need significantly more funding to scale up its staffing. Building public awareness and community trust in this program must also be a priority.

A lot is happening behind the scenes to work out a plan to respond to the huge gap in service this policy creates. It’s unfortunate that it is happening like this, especially when advocates have been making recommendations for years on how this change can happen in a way that can get folks connected to the individualized, effective care.

There is an urgent need to educate our community about the availability of 988 and the Community Wellness Response Team — how it can be accessed and when it can and should be used for. There is also an urgent need to increase funding to this team so that the mental health clinicians working in these programs can be classified as first-responders and compensated as such.

This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 2:27 PM.