NCDHHS pilots dispatch program to improve response for people experiencing mental health crisis

RALEIGH — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today announced a new pilot program to improve Mobile Crisis Teams’ response when someone experiencing a mental health crisis calls for help. The $1.5 million investment to Trillium Health Resources establishes a real-time dispatch process that streamlines response to individuals in crisis wherever they are.

Mobile Crisis Dispatch (MC Dispatch) is now operating in 10 counties in eastern North Carolina. The initiative is directly in line with Gov. Josh Stein’s Executive Order 33 that calls on NCDHHS to strengthen the mental health crisis system. MC Dispatch will get people directly into mental health care with a mobile response team, freeing up law enforcement resources.

"This initiative will connect people in crisis to the care they need by making sure they receive the appropriate level of response more quickly and efficiently," said N.C. Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai. "Streamlining this process will help achieve our goal of creating a stronger coordinated system of care."

"During a mental health crisis, seconds can make a difference," said Kelly Crosbie, MSW, LCSW, director, NCDHHS Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Use Disorders. "This new platform will help mobile crisis teams respond quicker. These highly trained counselors can come to a location of the caller’s choosing and will ensure they get the help they need."

MC Dispatch is managed by REAL Crisis Intervention, Inc., North Carolina’s 988 service provider. When someone calls the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline experiencing a mental health crisis that requires Mobile Crisis response within the pilot region, MC Dispatch will either send a mobile crisis team or connect the caller with a provider and other local resources. MC Dispatch is partnering with mobile crisis teams from Integrated Family Services and Easterseals PORT Health in the pilot counties.

The MC Dispatch platform will track key performance metrics to assess response efficiency and service accessibility including:

• Response times and adherence to service-level agreements (SLAs)
• Client demographics and payer information
• Request resolution outcomes
• Travel distances for responses
• Disposition outcomes and follow-up actions provided

The ten counties involved in the first phase are: Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Halifax, Lenoir, Nash, Sampson, Warren, Wayne and Wilson counties. The pilot is expected to be operational in 27 eastern North Carolina counties by the end of April with the ultimate goal of expanding it statewide. MC Dispatch is one part of NCDHHS efforts to support a coordinated system of mental health care that makes services easy to access when and where they are needed.

This investment is part of the NC General Assembly’s historic $835 million investment in mental health in 2023, with funds targeted for expanding and improving mental health care in North Carolina.