The city of Austin has begun dispatching a team that includes both mental health experts and police to address mental health emergency calls coming from the downtown area.
The Austin Field Integrated Response Support Team, or Austin FIRST, includes an Austin-Travis County EMS paramedic, an Integral Care mental health clinician and an Austin Police officer who has received mental health training. They will jointly respond to 911 calls that involve a person experiencing severe or complex mental health conditions and symptoms, including delusions and paranoia, as well as people at risk of self-harm.
“The city is always looking for holistic approaches to deal with mental health, deal with the unhoused crisis — all of those things. And this is it,” said Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis at a briefing to Austin’s Public Safety Committee in September…