Zach Terakedis with drug reduction nonprofit Substance Abuse Connect told the Billings city council on October 7 that organizers are attending a state-led meeting with the intention of learning more about crisis care, funding and what sustainable crisis response could look like in Billings.
Since it launched last October, the two-person Billings Mobile Crisis Unit has responded to calls for nearly 500 different individuals, all coded as mental health emergencies. Those are cases law enforcement and other first responders can hand off to mental health clinicians.
“So that we’re not taking people to jail who are just having a mental health crisis,” said Terakedis.
The program came to a halt when a key partner in the effort, the treatment center Rimrock Foundation, backed out. The program is no longer responding to new calls.
Rimrock CEO Jeff Keller said the organization officially stepped away in early September and the main issue was billing Medicaid and slow reimbursement from the federal program.
“Our decision might have been different if we knew money was coming, but really I think it takes a special type of response team to do that, and the folks who are at Rimrock really want to provide mental health care in a different way and not out in the first responder environment,” Keller said.
Terakedis attended the Montana Crisis Diversion Summit this week along with Billings Assistant Fire Chief Jason Banfield, who says he hopes what they learn at the conference will help get the program back into action.
