Chicago promised a better way to handle mental health crisis calls, but CARE program is struggling

Chicago promised a better way to handle mental health crisis calls, but CARE program is struggling – Chicago Sun-Times

But records show 911 personnel have been sending CARE teams to fewer mental health calls and that police still respond to most despite Mayor Brandon Johnson’s announcement last fall that the police would be removed from the program to give more responsibility to clinical responders. Meanwhile, the federal COVID-19 recovery funding that’s paid for most of the program’s operations will run out next year.

Chicago promised a better way to handle mental health crisis calls, but CARE program is struggling

On a chilly afternoon in October 2023, a single mother stood in her living room on the North Side as her teenage daughter erupted in rage, kicking, screaming and threatening to take her own life.The woman says that a few years earlier her daughter had been outgoing. Good in school, she loved sports and had plenty of friends. But, as an adolescent, her moods grew darker, her behavior volatile.Amid the girl’s mental health struggles, her mother Pa…

Crisis Response In Turmoil: Chicago’s CARE Program at a Tipping Point

Chicago’s mental health crisis teams were meant to replace police with clinicians. Bureaucratic dysfunction and fading federal support now threaten their survival. The post Crisis Response In Turmoil: Chicago’s CARE Program at a Tipping Point appeared first on South Side Weekly.