CARE Program expanding to respond to mental health calls, with demand higher than ever

By Megan Hickey

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    CHICAGO, Illinois (WBBM) — A specialized team is hard at work in Chicago, dispatched to handle hundreds of mental health calls that had the potential to turn deadly, but you might not have heard of them.

The Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) Program sends a mental health professional and an emergency medical technician – not police officers or firefighters – to respond to calls of mental health emergencies between 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. in select parts of the city.

A lot of the people who live in the communities the CARE team serves might not even know the program exists, but the data shows the demand is higher than ever.

Ashley Robinson, a 911 dispatcher and EMT, is part of the District 1 CARE team, and her van is stocked with the basic paramedic equipment, with some unique add-ons.

“We have blankets for those who are cold. … We have the basic essentials – Narcan, fentanyl strips, underwear, socks, toiletries, because a lot of people need toiletries,” she said. “Hats, gloves, shorts.”

The teams are sent to low-risk emergency calls identified by dispatchers as having a mental health component.

The whole point is to de-escalate the situation, and help avoid a tragic situation like one in Little Village last week, when a man armed with a knife was shot and killed by police after his girlfriend called 911 for help.

“We typically do not respond to calls where individuals have weapons, but there’s times where we don’t know, and we were told that there weren’t, and when we get on scene that they are, and we’ve been able to work with individuals who may have had that happen, and were able to de-escalate, defuse the situation,” said Tiffany Patton-Burnside, senior director of crisis services at the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Burnside said, in just the last four weeks, the CARE team has responded to 60 mental health calls.

“We’ve had individuals whose goals were just to not be here, and now they’re still here,” she said.

Sometimes the CARE team is able to achieve that just by providing something as simple as a snack and comfortable clothes.

“Sweatshirts, pants, shoes that have insoles for both the heat and the winter,” Robinson said.

Chicago deputy mayor of community safety Garien Gatewood said, while alternative response models like the CARE team can be met with skepticism, so far the data shows it’s working.

“I’m glad we’re having this conversation. So now your viewers will know that this is something that the city of Chicago is offering,” he said.

Between September 2021 and September 2024 — the CARE team responded to more than 1,500 calls that resulted in zero arrests and use of force in less than .1% of incidents.

“It shows that this model can work,” Gatewood said.

Gatewood said, because of that need, they city recently committed to expanding the CARE program from four police districts to six. He hopes to eventually expand the program citywide.

“That would be a wonderful day,” he said. “We’re working it piece by piece. You know, in an ideal world, we’d have 24/7 coverage, but we’re not there yet, but we’re going to continue to work to get there, to make sure everybody who is in need throughout our city has the resources that are necessary.”

Another unique part of this team is they follow up with the individuals they help – usually a day later, a week later, and a month later – to check in on them and see if they need additional support.

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