Monroe County will nearly triple the size of its mental health crisis response team over the next 90 days, County Executive Executive Adam Bello announced Tuesday.
The move from 10 full-time equivalent positions to 28 comes one month after the team similarly doubled in size from FTEs.
Bello made the announcement hours before a scheduled special hearing of the Monroe County Legislature focused on "deficiencies" in utilization and deployment of the Forensic Intervention Team.
FIT responds at the request of law enforcement, after the scene is stabilized, to do in-field assessments and connect people with services. Of the 9,900 mental health crisis calls to Monroe County 911 in 2020, FIT personnel responded to 1,150, officials said, generating 15,600 contacts to service agencies.