Re-Imagining Community Services

By David Shapiro

My name is David Shapiro, and I am running for the Ithaca City Common Council as a Democratic Candidate in Ward 3.

On April 24th, 2023, the City of Ithaca unanimously passed a report and recommendations on re-imagining public safety (seen here). Among the ve recommendations included one to “develop a public safety co-response team that will co-respond with law enforcements as appropriate and connect individuals and families with appropriate services; and work with the City’s law Enforcements assisted Diversion (LEAD) team.” e report provides a bulleted list of responsibilities that a newly established team of peer support specialists will have in response to emergency responses with the police force to non-violent calls for assistance; o en calls that relate to behavioral health, domestic violence, substance abuse, or other related community crises.

An alternative model I would like us to pursue, that does NOT include newly funded city positions, reallocated local tax expenses, or new allocations of funds to social service providers, but DOES provide a much-needed mental health emergency response (or co-response) team, is the creation of community based, mobile crisis team within the Tompkins County Whole Health Department.

Prior to working for Second Wind Cottages, I was the Executive Director at Family Services of Chemung County – one of the largest mental health clinics in NYS. In Chemung County, all mental health services are sub-contracted to this local non-pro t, including their countywide 24/7 mobile crisis team. is team has been operational for many years, and they already collaborate and coordinate within the County and Elmira City’s emergency response system. e mobile crisis team is sta ed by social workers and peers, who work collaboratively with the Elmira Police Department, the 911 dispatch team, and the community at large. e team provides a 24/7, community–based, trauma-informed, culturally competent response to non-violent behavioral health emergency calls.

In Chemung County, especially with some of the frequent callers of 911 who are reporting mental health emergen- cies, dispatchers may choose to contact the crisis team directly instead of the police force. In these instances, the calls are deemed to be not criminal or violent, but rather mental health or behavioral in nature, and the team provides a therapeutic emergency response. In other instances, the community has learned not to contact 911 and contacts the crisis team directly thus reducing the frequency of 911 calls.

When more traumatic community emergencies occur, or as the police department deems helpful, the crisis team arrives in conjunction with the police force, to provide an emotional, therapeutic, culturally competent response to people that have experienced trauma, violent/abusive crimes, or generally to provide emotionally supportive assistance. Lastly, the crisis team is authorized to issue a mental health arrest, which isn’t a great solution, but it mandates the police bring the individual to a psychiatric ward, versus a cot in a jail cell.

What the re-imagining report sets out to do in their second recommendation can be accomplished with this mobile crisis team and WITHOUT adding new expenses to our city budget funded by local tax dollars. In NYS, clinics licensed by the O ce of Mental Health can provide mobile crisis services that are insurance reimbursable through Medicaid and other payors. e Tompkins County Whole Health Department expand this service delivery today, without adding additional tax expenses. e Department already has the foundation of a crisis team. Together with other valuable community providers like Family and Childrens Service, Suicide Prevention, REACH, the Alcohol and Drug Council and the Mental Health Association (to name a few) a high quality, collaborative 24/7 mobile crisis outreach team is not only feasible but achievable.

Recent loosening of NYS OMH regulatory restrictions now even allows for crisis response teams to employ peers. “Peers” are folks that are in recovery from various mental health or substance abuse diagnosis. Certi ed peers can provide insurance reimbursable services to people that are experiencing a mental health crisis or who need other forms of assessment or