KINGSTON – The City of Kingston, in conjunction with Ulster County and Access: Support for the Living, has launched a Mobile Mental Health pilot project effective on Monday.
The first of its kind in upstate New York and one of only a few in the country, the program will pair a mental healthcare specialist with a Kingston Fire Department Emergency Medical Technician to staff a mobile response unit.
The Mobile Mental Health response team of social worker and EMT will have a dedicated ambulance and will provide person-centric crisis response to mental health emergency calls. The team will work weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will respond within the City of Kingston.
Ulster County 911 has a dedicated mental health dispatcher, and Kingston Police Department dispatchers have been trained to divert mental health calls. In addition to the Mobile Mental Health team, the entire fire department has been trained with an initial Crisis Intervention Training for Law Enforcement. Additional longer-form training is planned.
“We recognized that, with the growing mental health crisis, the need to provide more specialized services for our residents,” said Mayor Steven Noble. “With our highly-trained fire department and a mental health professional, we will be able to provide the support our community needs in situations that would have previously involved law enforcement.”
“We know that mental health is a central part of our overall health and wellness. It is vital that our mental and emotional wellbeing are also being cared for when we reach out in an emergency,” said County Mental Health Commissioner Tara McDonald.
County Executive Jen Metzger hopes this new project “will provide real, on-site, immediate assistance to our residents who are experiencing mental health emergencies.”
Kingston Alderwoman Barbara Hill said the Mobile Mental Health Program “is yet another demonstration of how Kingston takes excellent care of its residents. As a licensed clinical social worker, I designed a variety of mental health crisis services similar to this program. Most importantly, my brother is a person with serious mental health challenges, and we have utilized the help of the UC Mobile Mental Team. That team’s help spared my family two potential trips to the psychiatric ER and possible police intervention. This team is an essential service.”
