Here’s who Nashville police, mental health workers have served so far
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Nashville last summer launched a program that teams mental health workers and police officers to help residents and visitors in crisis.
The program, known as Partners in Care, aims to move people away from the legal system and toward mental health resources. It places mental health clinicians with police officers as they respond together to calls in three of Nashville’s eight precincts. The pilot year will finish this summer.
Partners in Care teams responded to thousands of calls from June 2021 through this March, said Michael Randolph, who coordinates the program’s clinicians and daily operations. A total of 1,055 calls were deemed mental health related.
Here’s a visual look at the program’s first three quarters of data.
Data illustrates outcomes, demographics of crisis intervention
The first quarter ran from June 28-Sept. 28. The second ran from Sept. 29-Dec. 28. The third ran from Dec. 29-March 28.
A large portion of the calls involved support and rapport building, Randolph said. That can include tasks such as mental health workers de-escalating a situation, connecting people with resources, even setting up appointments for people.
In the third quarter, support and rapport building was reported as 1.7% of the outcomes. Randolph said that was not because it occurred less, but rather due to honing data collection. Around 40% of calls still included support and rapport building, he added, but ultimately led to other outcomes like connecting people with resources or outpatient services.
“We’ve learned countless lessons so far,” said Randolph, adding that all the data collected so far is provisional and subject to change. “I’m really proud of what our team is doing.”
The majority of people served by Partners in Care ranged from ages 25-54 across all three quarters. However, children ages 0-17 leapt from around 5-6% in the first two quarters to 12.9% in the third quarter.
Race statistics were listed under white, Black, other or unreported and stayed largely consistent in each quarter.
Ethnicity was also accounted for, with the majority of people identifying as “not Hispanic or Latino” in each quarter.
Most of the people served by the program rented or owned a home, while around 25% said they were unhoused or in temporary emergency housing.
More statistics, at a glance
Around 44% of the 1,055 total mental health calls required a crisis assessment, while an average of 4% led to arrests.
Gender broke down to around 60% male and 40% female in the first quarter and was roughly 50-50 in the second and third.
The Hermitage Precinct experienced about 60% of the mental health calls in the first and third quarter. The second quarter was a nearly even split between the Hermitage and North precincts. The Central Precinct was added to the program after the fourth quarter began, so data is not yet available.
Find reporter Rachel Wegner at rawegner@tennessean.com or on Twitter @rachelannwegner.
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