North Las Vegas' new Crisis Response Team already making impact, expanding

North Las Vegas is among a growing number of cities that's changing how it responds to calls for service involving mental health and substance use.

I first told you about the city's plans of creating a Crisis Response Team last year. Now that the team is up and running, I wanted to check back in to see the work they've done so far in the team's first few months of operation.

The city's Crisis Response Team hit the streets starting Feb. 12, 2024. The team is made up of a clinical social worker, a program manager, a counselor, and another part-time social worker. The team responds to 911 calls with a behavioral health component.

"I think that there's a large population of people who aren't being reached for mental health needs, and they've been using 911 as a means to get help," said program manager Kristina Bernat. "So they're going over to hospitals and they're getting treated by the hospitals, but sometimes they're just kicked back out to the street without any resources."

The team connects folks in crisis with resources, whether it's directly related to mental health or substance use, or even just basic needs.

"It could be anywhere from therapy, peer support, psychiatrists, it's really just a whole plethora of resources out there. It could even be not even mental health-related, right, maybe somebody's just at the baseline, struggling with financial issues or housing issues, or food. There was one case where it was a repeat customer of 911 and it was usually a food-related issue, and all we did was go out and seek food through Catholic Charities," Bernat said.

Once the team makes contact with an individual, they also follow up with them a minimum of once a week afterward for at least 30 days.

"We don't want them to feel like they've been abandoned, like one and done, right? We want to kind of wrap them with services or case management and get them to that next step," Bernat said.

The team's program manager said they're already making a real difference, while reducing repeat 911 calls at the same time.

"The nice thing that we've heard is, 'it was great to know that somebody was there' that they could reach out to and connect with at the end of the day. When they did make those connections with resources, it was nice to hear, like 'wow, I wish I would've done that sooner,' or 'I feel like I got connected in the right space.' It's nice when they don't have to use 911 again to address that. They know where to go," Bernat said.

The team has responded to 185 calls since February 12, but officials say the city received 1,016 calls for psychiatric help during that time. The team was limited in how many calls it could respond to because it only had one unit. Officials said there were multiple occasions where the team would be responding to a call and receive another call for help at the same time. To help meet that need, the team recently received another vehicle, which hits the streets the week of July 22. This will give the team the ability to respond to more than one call at once, if needed.

The team's next goal is to expand its focus to the opioid crisis.