ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Most of us have experienced seeing someone in mental distress. The situation can feel chaotic, emotional and stressful.
Mental health experts say most times, someone experiencing a mental crisis needs a listening ear and the opportunity to talk through the emotions.
Knowing the need was great, St. Petersburg Police launched the CALL (Community Assistance and Life Liaison) program in February of 2021.
Through a partnership with Gulf Coast JFCS, mental health specialists respond to non-violent, non-criminal calls within the city of St. Petersburg. Instead of police officers showing up, two counselors respond to the scene dressed in jeans and driving their personal vehicles.
"We come with a calm presence," Tianna Audet, the program director with CALL, said. "We don’t have a gun and a badge. That can be intimidating."
More than a year later, the program is working and the city has extended the contract for CALL by two years.
"For the first time in our city, they had mental health professionals responding to them, spending extra time with them, following up with them, making sure they attended their visits, that they had medication management," Megan McGee with the St. Petersburg Police Department said.
Counselors respond to non-violent calls in five areas – mental health crisis, youth issues, neighborhood disputes, substance abuse and poverty.
"If you’re sitting on the ground and you’re crying, I’m going to come and sit next to you," Audet said. "I can take that one hour, two hour, three hours to help get you where you need to go where officers to no fault of their own, they have calls that are stacked and go from call to call to call."
According to data from the police department, suicide threat calls were up nearly 60% in 2021 but actual suicides decreased by 17%.
"Certainly, one suicide is too many but what we were really seeing was a decrease and a future stabilization of our numbers," McGee said.
On a monthly basis, CALL responds to an average of 208 real-time calls, 118 follow-ups and receives about 60-80 referrals.
More than 95% of CALL's responses on scene are without law enforcement. To date, there have been no incidents of violence or injury.