Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Cops and Hippies

    February 26, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

    The CAHOOTS program, which sends medics and counselors on certain 911 calls instead of the police, has become a national model in the wake of 2020's criminal-justice protests. But its roots reach back half a century, when a free medical clinic serving the hippie counterculture emerged as a public-health response to drug, mental health, and other non-violent emergencies. CAHOOTS has grown into a 24/7 service that saves Eugene millions in policing and medical spending, and saves many on the streets from unnecessarily punitive interactions with the police.

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  • An AI is training counselors to deal with teens in crisis

    February 26, 2021 |

    MIT Technology Review |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    Crisis hotlines and chat services are turning to technologies such as AI tools to help assist an oft-overburdened system. At The Trevor Project, AI is used as both a risk assessment tool and as a role-play simulator to train volunteer counselors to correspond with callers. Users of these tools stress that they are not a replacement for counselors, but rather a tool to help the humans in these roles.

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  • How does Portland's Street Response Team compare with a similar program in Denver?

    February 24, 2021 |

    KGW-TV |

    Broadcast TV News |

    3-5 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    Although Eugene, Oregon's long-running, successful CAHOOTS program serves as one model for the new Portland Street Response, a more relevant model can be found in Denver's STAR program. Like CAHOOTS, STAR responds to mental-health and other crisis calls with medics and counselors rather than police officers. But Denver's size, demographics, and homelessness make it much more analogous to Portland. In STAR's first six months, it handled nearly 750 calls without a single arrest. Both STAR and PSR are starting small, so more resources are needed if the pilot projects succeed.

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  • ‘I'm Stronger Now:' Support Centers For Trauma Survivors Expanding In Illinois

    February 08, 2021 |

    WBEZ |

    Radio |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Illinois

    Since 2017, two publicly funded trauma recovery centers in Illinois have helped violent-crime survivors cope with the emotional fallout that can accompany a loved one's murder or surviving their own violent attack. Case managers help people get group and individual therapy. They can also line up financial aid to help people pay for food and rent, when their trauma interferes with their ability to make a living. The centers, based on a model developed in California as a way to foster public safety through healing communities, will expand by three more in the state in 2021.

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  • Denver successfully sent mental health professionals, not police, to hundreds of calls

    February 06, 2021 |

    USA Today |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    In its first six months, Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assistance Response) handled 748 emergency calls that in the past would have gone to the police or firefighters. Two-person teams of a medic and clinician helped people with personal crises related mainly to homelessness and mental illness. None of the calls required police involvement and no one was arrested. The city plans to spend more to expand the program, which is meant to prevent needless violence and incarceration from calls to the police that other types of first-responders can better address.

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  • Health care workers replaced Denver cops in handling hundreds of mental health and substance abuse cases — and officials say it saved lives

    February 06, 2021 |

    CBS News |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    Denver's STAR program (Support Team Assisted Response) replaced police officers with health professionals on 748 calls for help. In incidents involving mental health, homelessness, and substance abuse, police backup was never needed, no one was arrested, and minor crises did not risk escalating into violence because of police presence. The six-month pilot project will expand to more parts of the city and more hours of the week, with an infusion of city money to supplement the private funding that got the program started.

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  • After Capitol riot, desperate families turn to groups that ‘deprogram' extremists

    February 05, 2021 |

    The Washington Post |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    Groups like Parents for Peace and Life After Hate use former radicals to counsel people in the grip of right-wing extremism. Bombarded by pleas for help by families since the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, these groups use a series of meetings to help people examine the roots of their ideology, with an aim of helping them discover for themselves the irrationality of their hatred and other beliefs. While one researcher says the methods show signs of effectiveness, success is defined mainly in individual stories of change, in a hard-to-measure process of "personal and idiosyncratic" introspection.

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  • In the first six months of health care professionals replacing police officers, no one they encountered was arrested

    February 02, 2021 |

    Denverite |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

    Denver's STAR (Support Team Assisted Response) program deliberately reduces potentially violent encounters between uniformed police officers and troubled people by responding to certain low-level crises with a mental health clinician and a medic. In STAR's first six months, the team offered 748 people help rather than jail, without requiring any arrests to resolve problems. With more resources, the team could have handled more than 2,500 incidents. The police chief supports the program's expansion, saying it frees his officers to handle more serious matters.

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  • Next Step goes to the front lines of gun violence in Minneapolis, starting with the shooting victims

    January 30, 2021 |

    Minnesota Star Tribune |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

    Next Step is a hospital-based violence intervention program based at Minneapolis' Hennepin County Medical Center that counsels gunshot victims to try to help lower the chances that they will be harmed again or seek to harm others. Focusing on young adults and their families, the program starts its work when a victim is hospitalized. The counseling and connections to support services can continue for months and even years.

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  • Cops, crisis calls and conflict over who should help

    January 28, 2021 |

    Crosscut |

    Podcast |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Seattle Police Department's crisis response team answers some of the city's many 911 calls for people in distress, pairing police trained in handling such calls with mental health professionals. The aim is to counter the default policing approach to problems that usually involve mental illness or substance abuse, which is to control people. It doesn't always work, due to the complexity of the calls, the nature of policing, and the department's limited resources devoted to the program. But, when it works, it can help rather than escalate situations, and avoid the ultimate failure, the use of excessive force.

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