The city of Phoenix has been working on a different way to respond to mental health emergencies or assist victims of traumatic events. The city greatly expanded those efforts last year and is expanding further in 2024 and beyond.
Since August 2022, Phoenix has greatly expanded its teams of mental health case workers who respond to emergencies in addition to or instead of police and fire, depending on the nature of the emergency. Some 911 calls have also been transferred to case workers to assist with callers having a mental health emergency.
The teams of case workers work with Phoenix Police and Phoenix Fire communications divisions to identify situations that do not require a response from police or fire but might need mental health assistance, said Phoenix Community Assistance Program Administrator D.C. Ernst.
