When a mental health crisis unfolds in Miami-Dade County, a call to 1-866-SAFEMIA brings a different kind of first responder. Instead of armed officers, the Freedom House Mobile Crisis Team sends trained medics, therapists and crisis interventionists who focus on listening, de-escalating and connecting people to care—all without involving police.
Run by Dade County Street Response (DCSR), unit members function as both hotline call-takers and outreach workers, providing direct support to callers and people they encounter on the street. Team members conduct on-site assessments, prioritize medical emergencies, develop safety plans and connect people to resources with the goal of avoiding involuntary psychiatric commitment under Florida’s Baker Act whenever possible.
“That reality is central to our approach: we don’t involve the police,” said Dr. Armen Henderson, DCSR’s executive director. “As CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) has demonstrated, they’ve handled over 24,000 calls annually and only required police backup in a few hundred—under 1%. We model our system similarly centered on harm reduction, cultural familiarity and trust.”
Now, with a three-year grant by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, totaling $2.2 million, Freedom House is preparing its largest expansion yet.
An alternative to police response
The program launched in 2022 under Dream Defenders in Liberty City, named after a pioneering Black-led ambulance service that began in Pittsburgh in 1967. That original Freedom House set the standard for modern emergency treatment by putting trained medical staff and equipment in ambulances for the first time.
Miami’s unit was initially funded by a $900,000 grant from the Open Society Foundation to the Dream Defenders’ Healing and Justice Center, a coalition that includes DCSR, Beyond the Bars and Circle of Brotherhood and provides an array of services from free health clinics to youth programs…