Body Camera Footage / Rochester Police
Monroe County will immediately begin to divert behavioral health crisis calls that do not require an immediate in-person response to the 211/Lifeline crisis hotline and will work to develop an around the clock system of non-police responders to handle mental health crisis calls that need an immediate, in-person response, county officials announced Thursday.
Both initiatives were suggested by a county mental health and substance abuse disorder task force, which on Thursday released a report and findings about the county’s delivery of key mental health and addiction services, including its Forensic Intervention Team, which pairs county mental health clinicians with police officers responding to calls in which a person is experiencing a crisis.