\u201cWhen the CARE team came in, they were trained, and they knew how to calm the situation in a very professional, respectful way that my daughter was able to respond to,\u201d Pamela says.<\/p>\n
For her, CARE has been a lifeline, assisting her daughter, now 19, more than half a dozen times over the past four years, helping calm moments that once spiraled out of control.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf CARE hadn\u2019t come into our lives, I think things would have been much worse,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople with mental illness \u2014 they need help.\u201d<\/p>\n
But records obtained by the Medill Investigative Lab-Chicago and MindSite News show 911 personnel have been sending CARE teams to fewer mental health calls and that police still respond to most despite Mayor Brandon Johnson\u2019s <\/a>announcement last fall that the police would be removed from the program to give more responsibility to clinical responders.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the federal COVID-19<\/a> recovery funding that\u2019s paid for most of the program\u2019s operations will run out next year.<\/p>\n Johnson says he remains committed to the program and city<\/a> funding for it and ultimately expanding it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of the marked vans that the city of Chicago\u2019s CARE teams use to respond to 911 calls about mental health crises.<\/p>\n Janani Janarthanann \/ MindSite News<\/p>\n The use of mobile crisis teams to respond to mental health crises became more common as the police reform movement intensified after a white Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, a Black man, in 2020. But they\u2019re struggling with uncertain funding and staffing shortages.<\/p>\n Calls to reform Chicago\u2019s mental health system predate the start of the CARE program, with Mayor Rahm Emanuel\u2019s decision to close six of 12 city mental health clinics in 2012 spurring protests. City officials said<\/a> the clinics would be replaced with higher-quality private care through partnerships with more than 60 clinics, saving millions of dollars.<\/p>\n In 2020, the Collaborative for Community Wellness<\/a> \u2014 which included mental health professionals and community organizations \u2014 launched the \u201cTreatment Not Trauma\u201d campaign, demanding a citywide crisis-response system that didn\u2019t rely on police.<\/p>\n In September 2020, Ald. Rossana Rodr\u00edguez S\u00e1nchez (33rd) proposed an ordinance calling for a move to non-police responses. She says her plan reflected demands from Black and Brown communities \u201cthat people experiencing mental health issues are met with care, not punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n City Council and police union opponents called the proposal a move to \u201cdefund the police.\u201d<\/p>\n CARE was Mayor Lori Lightfoot\u2019s<\/a> compromise: a two-year pilot program involving teams of police officers, paramedics and mental health clinicians. There was some opposition to having the police involved, but police Supt. David Brown said officers would provide safety.<\/p>\n CARE was launched in September 2021. It had just a $3.5 million budget, operating in only a handful of neighborhoods between 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.<\/p>\n When Johnson took office in 2023, he promised to reopen the closed clinics, <\/a>expand CARE\u2019s hours and phase out police involvement. Last September, his administration announced CARE was being moved from the police department to the health department.<\/p>\n \u201cBy directing 911 mental health calls to public health teams, we are ending the criminalization of these issues and helping to ensure people who are unhoused or experiencing a mental health challenge get the treatment and support they need,\u201d the mayor said then.<\/p>\n Today, seven CARE teams \u2014 including a mental health clinician and an emergency medical technician \u2014 respond to low-risk 911 calls involving mental health issues in certain police districts, mostly on the South Side and the West Side. One team can respond citywide.<\/p>\n Dispatchers can send a CARE team if a call meets certain criteria, though more often the CARE teams take it upon themselves to show up after hearing calls dispatched, records show. The police also can request CARE\u2019s assistance.<\/p>\n Since only the police can transport people to a hospital against their will, 911 operators often are reluctant to dispatch CARE teams. And since CARE vans operate without sirens, it takes longer for them than for the police to get to calls.<\/p>\n Health<\/a> department logs show CARE teams responded to 37 calls in 2021, 481 in 2022 and 773 in 2023. Amid Johnson\u2019s 2024 restructuring, the number plummeted to 276.<\/p>\n That was the case even as 911 dispatchers categorized more than 96,000 calls last year as potentially mental health-related. That means fewer than 1% of 911 calls regarding a possible mental health issue saw a CARE team respond.<\/p>\n The police are still responding to most calls the city designates as CARE calls, alone or alongside CARE clinical teams.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office says city officials are working to ensure \u201cthat the CARE team is dispatched more frequently to meet the need for mental health services\u201d and developing an \u201caction plan within the next 45 days\u201c to address concerns.<\/p>\n Current and former CARE insiders say turf battles among the city agencies involved have limited the program.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a fight between the three entities\u201d \u2014 the police, fire and health departments \u2014 says a former CARE worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity. \u201cWho\u2019s gonna be in charge? There was no real collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n The lack of coordination has made things difficult, according to former CARE clinician Patrick Cornelius, with interdepartmental interactions often feeling \u201cvery quid pro quo \u2014 very \u2018you do me a favor, I do you a favor.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n In 2021, only 8% of CARE responses were initiated by 911 dispatchers \u2014 in part, CARE clinician Drake Schoeppl says, because \u201cthey didn\u2019t want to get in trouble\u201d if a situation became violent. That number rose to 19% in 2023 and 33% in 2024.<\/p>\n But after the police were removed from CARE teams last fall, the portion of CARE responses initiated by 911 dispatchers fell from 46% in September to 9% in December. The number of police calls for CARE assists also plummeted.<\/p>\n The health department wants 911 operators to deploy CARE teams more often, rather than the teams self-dispatching, says Dr. Jenny Hua, Chicago\u2019s interim deputy commissioner for behavioral health.<\/p>\n But she says dispatchers have to be sure first that there\u2019s no crime or medical emergency involved.<\/p>\n Hua says calls that have \u201cnothing but a mental health component\u201d and thus clearly eligible for CARE are \u201ca needle in a haystack\u201d of all 911 calls.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office says: \u201cThe 911 system must assume the worst because they don\u2019t want emergencies missed. A person could be lying on the street because of a heart attack or an overdose or a schizophrenic episode. In a medical emergency, a paramedic is the default first responder. In a violence-related call, police is the default.\u201d<\/p>\n CARE teams have responded to a wide range of settings. In one case, Schoeppl says, a woman barricaded herself inside her home because she thought the FBI was coming. Police surrounded the house for 30 minutes. Schoeppl says he stepped in, listening without challenging her delusions. Eventually, he says, she agreed to go to a hospital for help \u2014 the kind of outcome CARE aims for.<\/p>\n About one-quarter of CARE calls last year resulted in the person being taken to a hospital emergency department for evaluation.<\/p>\n Krista Murphy, a clinical social work lead in the psychiatry emergency department at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, says police officers or paramedics who bring in people with mental health symptoms \u201caren\u2019t able to really speak to their clinical symptoms just because they don\u2019t have training in mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n She says the CARE teams expedite assessments, allowing the hospital staff to quickly determine whether a psychiatric admission or alternative care is needed.<\/p>\n In January, city officials announced the expansion of the CARE program from four police districts to six. But the federal funding that\u2019s largely paid for it is ending.<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s office says the mayor \u201cis committed to continued funding of the CARE program. . . . Mayor Johnson will do everything in his power to expand resources for the program,\u201d aiming to offer the program across more of the city and around the clock.<\/p>\n Contributing: Rachel Yoon, Janani Janarthanan, Nicole Johnson, Tyler Williamson, Jai Indra, Nicole Johnson, Kari Lydersen<\/p>\n![\"One](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/fbcad0f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/640x480+0+0\/resize\/840x630!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fd1%2F05%2F6370805546f39cf35b002c32ca8a%2Fcare-van-photo-by-janani-janarthanan.jpeg\")
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