Alternative Health Intervention and Response Task Force

The Alt. Health Intervention & Response Task Force is a direct response to many of Chicago’s initiatives working to combat police’s dismal tactics, and in turn results, when it comes to answering mental health related calls.
https://www.chicagoreporter.com/cpd-will-get-more-support-on-mental-health-calls/

This is the task force’s first meeting, so today we’ll be covering the overall crisis intervention landscape, the task forces planned role in the county’s overall health, as well as the frameworks they’ll be following moving forward https://t.co/gvSSHIVZpq

The meeting is officially called to order at 10:11am!

The meeting has members present from the cook county board of commissioners, the general public, cook county health, and many other departments, since a permanent board hasn’t been voted on yet

Painting a picture of cook county and the overall national model, Dr. Kiran Joshi breaks down the different forms of crisis intervention we’ve seen throughout the years involving police, crisis hotlines, and other responders https://t.co/FqKzDiKAv4

One of the most notable crisis intervention tactics being used that the ALT-HIR task force was inspired by Eugene, Oregon’s Model, which has been running for the past 20 years https://t.co/rQzLP2c6pQ

Overall, many Non-Police responses have proven to be very cost effective for both https://t.co/1vaFS799tV

Costs aside, Dr. Joshi also highlights how much better non-police responses would be for our overall incarceration rates.

Despite this data being from 10 years ago, Dr. Joshi says the stats would actually be adjusted to much higher savings today https://t.co/EuPTfg0ZSh

In Illinois’ case, the three Alt. Health Intervention & Response tactics being followed are:
- 590 Crisis Care Systems
- Community Emergency Services Support Act
- 988
https://theconversation.com/whats-the-411-on-the-new-988-hotline-5-questions-answered-about-a-national-mental-health-service-178974

The 590 programs aims to close, “service gaps due to racial and geographical inequities,” by funding the expansion of community programs already developed by the state for crisis intervention. https://t.co/irU15M0s6C

Moving forward with Community Emergency Services Support Act (CESSA), several changes have been made to better deliver mobile mental and behavioral healthcare, such as 911 operators redirecting calls to a specified dispatch team from now on https://t.co/RfgYJ26n1Y

https://t.co/VQEVpa9zsR

https://t.co/gYUWrgdIOL

All these changes being suggested and made though, NO change should be or will be made until all changes are voted on and those involved are fully trained

Related to 988, this new crisis number is meant to serve as the new number to call instead of 911 when it comes to mental and behavioral health related calls. The new number is set to start functioning this July https://t.co/V656Jwm2hY

Moving on to Resolution 22-0737, Laura Lechowicz of the Cook County Legal Counsel is going over the this task forces overall goals and purpose https://t.co/29oQsALKfI

Concluding the presentations, a Q/A is now beginning, with many emphasizes their excitement over the creation for the task force.

Meeting is adjourned at 11:23am.

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