North Carolina Launches $1.5M Program for Mental Health Crisis Response in 10 Counties

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services rolled out a $1.5 million pilot to create real-time dispatch for Mobile Crisis Teams across 10 eastern counties. Trillium Health Resources received the funding to build a system that speeds up response when residents call during a psychiatric emergency.

Mobile Crisis Dispatch started operations in Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Halifax, Lenoir, Nash, Sampson, Warren, Wayne, and Wilson counties. It links residents facing crises with trained counselors who arrive on-site.

Governor Josh Stein's Executive Order 33 pushed NCDHHS to bolster the state's psychiatric crisis infrastructure. MC Dispatch gets residents straight to counselors through mobile teams. Police can focus on other work.

"This initiative will connect people in crisis to the care they need by making sure they receive the appropriate level of response more quickly and efficiently," said Dev Sangvai, per Goldsboro Daily News. "Streamlining this process will help achieve our goal of creating a stronger coordinated system of care."

REAL Crisis Intervention Inc. runs dispatch as the state's 988 provider. When someone calls the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline while experiencing a psychiatric breakdown requiring Mobile Crisis response within these counties, dispatchers send a mobile team or link the caller with a provider plus local resources.

Kelly Crosbie stressed that rapid response matters. "During a mental health crisis, seconds can make a difference," Crosbie said. "These highly trained counselors can come to a location of the caller's choosing and ensure they get the help they need."

MC Dispatch works with mobile teams from Integrated Family Services and Easterseals PORT Health across pilot counties. The platform will monitor performance measures to gauge success — response times, travel distances, outcomes, and follow-up visits.

Officials expect the pilot to reach 27 eastern counties by April's end. Statewide expansion is the long-term target.

The General Assembly approved $835 million for psychiatric services in 2023. That investment sparked this effort to widen access to behavioral health and improve crisis response statewide.