Triaging Mental Health 9-1-1 Calls: Phoenix Dispatcher Training, And How Community Can Help

PHOENIX —"Let's say someone is having a mental health crisis. If they've never had a mental health crisis before, and they don't know who to call, they're probably going to call 9-1-1. And the dispatcher might be the first person to ever help them," Detective Sabrina Taylor, a Crisis Intervention Team Training Coordinator at Phoenix Police, said.

With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, we took a look at the mental health related calls that 9-1-1 dispatchers receive, and the training they get to triage those calls.

"It feels like a lot," Detective Taylor explained. "These calls are generally more complicated and take more time than other calls. You think of a person that's not having any kind of mental issues, you can just rattle off name, date, social security number. But somebody who is struggling with thought process, it's going to take a long time to get to what the real problem is."

Dispatchers receive training to identify types of mental illness, assess threat levels, utilize negotiation tactics, and know where to appropriately direct these callers for help.

"At first they were like, if you call 9-1-1, I'm responsible. Who am I transferring this to?" Detective Taylor said of the dispatchers. "Once we built up that trust, they were like oh thank goodness. There is somewhere I can send people. Because I know they don't need the police but I don't know what else to do.

"The goal is to avoid further upsetting a distressed caller by finding appropriate behavioral health services. This has the added benefit of reducing both the criminalization and stigma around mental illness.

"If they're just feeling sad and they're not at super high risk of being injured, they don't really need the police department," Detective Taylor explained. "There's no crime, there's no danger. So they can transfer that person right over to the crisis line."

"The community can help dispatchers by getting informed about the resources. If you or a loved one are experiencing a mental health crisis, call the county crisis line at 602-222-9444. If you do call 9-1-1, ask for a Crisis Intervention Team certified officer. That is a police officer that has received additional training in dealing with mental health calls.

This press release was produced by the City of Phoenix. The views expressed here are the author’s own.