The Milwaukee County Mental Health Board has approved $500,000 to be designated for a partnership between the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and the county’s behavioral health division to create a county Crisis Assessment and Response Team, known as CART.
The CART would pair Behavioral Health Division mental health clinicians with law enforcement officers to respond to situations when a person calls 9-1-1 and asks for mental health services or says that mental health symptoms may be present.
Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas says they are excited about the partnership.
“We will team with a clinician who certainly has a lot more extensive experience in dealing with mental health crises. By doing such they can utilize the training and techniques that they’ve developed over time to deescalate situations, provide some compassionate communication and to assess the situation and then make a determination to provide a whole host of community based services that may not be available to law enforcement,” said Lucas.
Hear the full interview by clicking on the link above.
