The North Carolina Department of HHS is investing $1.5 million in a pilot program designed to improve how mobile crisis teams respond when individuals experiencing a mental health emergency call for help.
The funding to Greenville, N.C.-based Trillium Health Resources establishes a real-time dispatch process, called Mobile Crisis Dispatch, aimed at streamlining how individuals in crisis are connected with care and freeing up law enforcement resources, according to a March 5 news release from the department. The platform is operating in 10 counties in eastern North Carolina.
When callers to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline require a mobile response within the region, MC Disbatch will send a mobile crisis team or connect the individual with a provider or other local resources.
The platform will track performance metrics, including response times, adherence to service-level agreements, client demographics, payer information, request resolution outcomes, traveled distances, disposition outcomes and follow-up actions provided.
The initiative is managed by Real Crisis Intervention, North Carolina’s 988 service provider, and partners with mobile crisis teams from Integrated Family Services, based in High Point, N.C., and Easterseals Port Health, based in Greenville, N.C., in the pilot counties.
The program is expected to expand to 27 eastern North Carolina counties by the end of April, with a long-term goal of expanding statewide, according to the release.
The investment is part of the $835 million in mental health funding approved by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2023 to expand and improve mental healthcare across the state.
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