By Hospital Association of Oregon staff
When it comes to helping those experiencing a mental health crisis, there is a growing body of evidence pointing to the effectiveness of community-based alternatives to law enforcement intervention. With that goal in mind, Providence Oregon has become a major supporter of the community-based mobile crisis response program, a public private partnership run by Jackson County Mental Health and Mercy Flights.
The program sends professional teams trained in compassionate, trauma-informed care to treat individuals in crisis throughout the county.
The Providence support came in the way of a two-year, $400,000 grant to United Way of Jackson County.
“The idea that we can alleviate some of the stress from the police system and pull people out of mental health crises that don’t involve police intervention I think is really important,” Director of Community Health Investment at Providence, Joe Ichter told a reporter from KMTV.
Jackson County’s Mobile Crisis Response Team has been handling mental health crisis calls since the spring of 2023.
Organizers say the program has been successful so far and that they hope to partner the program with Jackson County emergency dispatchers and expand services to weekends.
