Should mental health experts, not police, take some 911 calls?

A coalition of activists is aiming so as to add a symbolic query to the November poll about funding non-police responses to 911 calls about psychological well being crises.

The referendum would ask whether or not Chicago ought to reopen all closed psychological well being clinics that had been operated by the general public well being division, in addition to whether or not town ought to help a crew of psychological well being professionals to be dispatched to psychological well being emergency calls. as an alternative of the police. Residents of Districts 6, 20 and 33 would obtain the non-binding query on their ballots.

Advocates stood exterior the Chicago Board of Elections at a information convention Monday earlier than presenting their poll measure petitions, which had been in a column of rain-soaked bins studying “TREATMENT NOT TRAUMA.”

Diane Adams, chief of Southside Collectively Organizing for Energy, mentioned she fell right into a crushing despair when her son died many years in the past. Her signs worsened till she tried suicide, and solely years later she started to heal with the assistance of a therapist.

“I used to be in a position to get my life again,” Adams mentioned, noting that others in Chicago deserve the identical alternative.

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Town already operates a Disaster Help Engagement and Response, or CARE, pilot program that launched final fall beneath the administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot. CARE started utilizing a co-responder mannequin, so law enforcement officials have nonetheless been concerned within the pilot program that operated in Lakeview and Uptown and within the Auburn Gresham and Chatham neighborhoods.

Final month, town expanded the pilot program with a 3rd crew, the primary to function with no police officer. That crew responds to calls in Chicago’s Southwest Garden, Gage Park, West Elsdon and West Garden neighborhoods.

As for psychological well being clinics, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed half of them a couple of decade in the past, and Lightfoot has not spoken in favor of reopening them. As an alternative, he opted for myriad public-private partnerships to help clinics that aren’t city-operated.

In an announcement Monday afternoon, the Chicago Division of Public Well being famous that its psychological well being price range elevated from $12 million in 2019 to $89 million and that this yr, town is on monitor to serve 60,000 residents with companies. of psychological well being.

“These vital investments are making a distinction proper now, offering extra care to extra individuals than ever earlier than, diverting individuals from the legal justice system, and taking a trauma-informed method that meets individuals the place they’re,” one wrote. spokesman.

Whereas proponents of a non-police mannequin for some 911 calls say officers aren’t higher geared up to de-escalate individuals experiencing psychological well being crises and that police presence might antagonize them, others say such conditions are risky. and that not having the police current may very well be harmful.

Ald. Rosanna Rodríguez Sánchez, who represents the thirty third district, the place voters can be requested the query, mentioned she lately visited Denver to speak about its Assist Workforce Assisted Response (STAR) program that sends psychological well being professionals, not police, to cope with non-violent calls. She mentioned that she believes a non-police response protects everybody, together with officers.

“Proper now, the one software we now have financed is the police, and this places individuals in danger,” Rodríguez Sánchez mentioned. “It places communities in danger and even officers, it places them in danger. So whoever is attempting to ship the police to cope with these items would not even care concerning the welfare of these officers.”

Jhoanna Maldonado, a Chicago Public Colleges instructor, mentioned she has seen firsthand that folks with entry to psychological well being help can chill out and heal from a disaster.

“It makes a giant distinction,” Maldonado mentioned. “That is the change we want in our metropolis. Let’s cease blaming one another for the violent deaths and unarmed shootings of individuals in psychological well being crises and carry up options, actual options, that we all know work. That’s justice.”

ayin@chicagotribune.com