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Report regarding a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a Memorandum of Understanding between the County of San Mateo and the South San Francisco Police Department to continue the Community Wellness Crisis Response Team program in South San Francisco for Fiscal Year 2024-25. (Adam Plank, Police Captain)
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a resolution approving a Memorandum of Understanding that extends the Community Wellness Crisis Response Team program for Fiscal Year 2024-25.
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BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
The Community Wellness Crisis Response Team (CWCRT) began as a two-year pilot program with four participating cities (South San Francisco, San Mateo, Daly City, and Redwood City) that embedded a StarVista licensed mental health clinician within each police department. The CWCRT program provides a crisis co-response model (clinician and police officer) that responds to behavioral health-related incidents reported to the department's dispatch center. The same pilot program concept will now expand to six additional police departments in San Mateo County to incorporate similar programs in those jurisdictions.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been drafted between the City of South San Francisco ("City") and the County of San Mateo Behavioral Health and Recovery Services ("County Services") to maintain mental health clinician coverage in South San Francisco for next fiscal year. The coverage will continue providing community benefits like early intervention, crisis de-escalation, mental health evaluations, initiating involuntary holds, referrals to additional services, follow-up visits, and support for the involved individuals and their families.
The CWCRT two-year pilot program was evaluated by the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities at Stanford University. The Gardner Center's impact report identified a 16% reduction of involuntary psychiatric detentions and a 17% reduction...
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