§2Grants for unarmed mobile crisis response programs
This section establishes grants, administered by the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use, to states, territories, political subdivisions (such as counties), tribal governments, and consortia of tribal governments for unarmed mobile crisis response programs. These programs divert nonviolent 911 calls (i.e., those related to mental health, homelessness, addiction, social services, truancy, intellectual or developmental disabilities, or public intoxication without obvious violent behavior) from law enforcement to teams of two or more unarmed professional service providers (e.g., nurses, social workers, EMTs, counselors, or peer support specialists trained in mental health, substance use, or disability crises).
Funded programs must provide timely screening, assessment, de-escalation, trauma-informed culturally competent services, referrals, and transportation to treatment; coordinate with health, housing, or social services as needed; operate without law enforcement oversight; and specify call referral scopes. (Thus, such programs aim to reduce law enforcement, emergency room, hospitalization, and ambulance involvement in mental health or substance use crises by routing individuals to alternative destinations such as crisis stabilization centers or outpatient clinics instead of hospitals or jails.)
Grant funds may be used to (1) hire providers and public safety telecommunicators; (2) train on de-escalation, crisis intervention, and connections to culturally competent services; (3) update 911 systems for triage; (4) develop telecommunicator training curricula; (5) coordinate with 988 call centers; (6) build coordination and multilingual capacity; and (7) collect data. Grantees must submit biannual reports to the Secretary on diverted calls, disaggregated demographics (by race, ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, location, disabilities, substance use, and housing), program impacts, response metrics, and costs; the Secretary must submit biannual summary reports to Congress. Grants may be awarded to applicants not fully meeting program requirements but at reduced amounts.