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The Santa Fe Board of County Commissioners this week approved a contract with Presbyterian Medical Services in the amount of $350,000 to fund a Mobile Crisis Response Team for adults and adolescents experiencing a behavioral health crisis in our County. The team will be linked to a 24/7 countywide toll free hotline and will provide crisis services, including assessment, intervention, and stabilization. Training will also be provided to law enforcement and 911 on working with individuals who are in crisis.

The Mobile Crisis Response Team is an evidence based approach and targets key County health priorities identified by the Health Policy and Planning Commission, including reducing suicides, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse.

“We are very pleased to fund this needed service in our community,” states Katherine Miller, Santa Fe County Manager. She continued, “Hopefully we can work together to prevent some of the tragedies that other communities are currently experiencing in both New Mexico and nationwide.”

The purpose of a Mobile Crisis Team is to do the following:
• Provide immediate aid to people having a behavioral health crisis;
• Stabilize persons as quickly as possible;
• Assess need and link to appropriate community based services;
• Provide training to law enforcement and EMS on how to work with people in crisis.
The most recent studies from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) suggest that “mobile crisis services are effective at diverting people in crisis from psychiatric hospitalization, effective at linking suicidal individuals discharged from the emergency department to services; and better than hospitalization at linking people in crisis to outpatient services.”

Direct services are scheduled to begin in July, 2015 in Santa Fe County.

For more information on the Mobile Crisis Response team contact Patricia Boies at pboies@santafecountynm.gov or 505-995-9538.