NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It's been three months since New Haven launched its Elm City COMPASS community crisis response team. The initiative is meant to help police and fire officials when they're responding to calls.
The question is, more than 90 days into the program, is it working? City leaders came together on Friday to answer that question.
"70% of all the 250 crisis responses were to provide assistance due to mental health or substance use challenges," said New Haven Mayor, Justin Elicker.
From November through Jan. 31, the COMPASS team responded to 275 calls. Elicker said 37% of them were for 911 calls, and 63% were self-deployed. That means the team sought out people or neighborhoods they knew needed help. Of the 911 calls, 65% were requested by the New Haven Police Department and 35% were requested by fire officials.
"It's a breath of fresh air to have the backing of, we can call someone else who has better skills than us for other things. In all my 25 years of policing, I never had that," said Chief Karl Jacobson with the New Haven Police Department.
Right now, the team is made up of six people, including social workers and support specialists.
"I think that people just want to be seen. They want to be heard," said Sarah Alkire, a COMPASS Recovery Support Specialist.
Alkire and her team respond along with police and fire whenever someone is in crisis whether it's dealing with mental health, homelessness, or substance issues.
"We've gone to a number of calls and I think in every call, we play a role in trying to help someone," Alkire said.
The team follows up with people weeks and months after the initial connection, ensuring they get the needed resources.
However, they have run into one problem.
"It's no surprise to anyone probably that we have a shortage of beds, insufficient housing, and the experience of waitlist after waitlist, after waitlist," said John Labieniec, Director of the COMPASS Crisis Response Team.
The city is also doing what it can to tackle the problem by building more affordable housing...and supports to follow.
"Often the transition between the streets and into housing can be a really difficult one and we recognize that," said Dr. Mehul Dalal, New Haven Community Services Administrator.
Right now, the COMPASS team works seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. In July, they hope to double their team and expand the hours from 8 a.m. to midnight. Eventually, they'd like it to run 24/7.
In the meantime, the COMPASS team is enjoying helping as many people as possible.
"Your job is to be there for them, not to judge them. And that's what I let them know. I'm here to help you. I don't care that you fell. Let's worry about what we're going to do to get you back up," said Nanette Campbell, COMPASS Recovery Support Specialist.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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