On a bad night, mobile crisis response teams can be a lifeline

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OPINION – It’s the middle of the night and someone you love is in a mental health or substance-induced crisis. You’re trying to keep them and everyone around them safe, but you can’t do it alone. You hesitate to call law enforcement because you fear the situation could escalate. So, you call your county’s mobile crisis response hotline. A trained team from a local nonprofit responds quickly and empathically, calming the situation and connecting your loved one to the help and follow-up care they need. The program worked. But it could go away.

In his January budget proposal, Gov. Newsom called for dismantling this statewide Medi-Cal provided benefit, instead shifting the program costs to counties. Make no mistake: in practice, that would dismantle 24-hour mobile crisis response in all but California’s most affluent counties. Without support for the workforce, training requirements, and clinical supervision needed, this successful program would disappear in most of the state.

It would be heartbreaking given how well it has worked in the roughly three years it has been operational statewide. Sycamores operates after-hours mobile response crisis teams in Los Angeles and Riverside counties. In the evenings and overnight, seven days a week, 365 days a year, our staff are taking calls, following up on previous cases, and dispatching response teams. Our goal is to be on scene within one hour to two hours. While enroute, we stay in contact with the caller, already working to defuse conflict. And we are just one of the many non-profits providing similar support throughout California.

On scene, our clinicians and peer support staff work to de-escalate and stabilize the situation with trauma-informed care. We help families navigate next steps, whether that means connecting to outpatient support, arranging follow-up, or—when necessary—coordinating a higher level of care.

The outcomes speak for themselves. In Los Angeles County in 2024, nearly half the calls we responded to were resolved with the client staying out of the hospital. That means fewer expensive emergency room visits, less pressure on paramedics, law enforcement, and fire agencies, and—most importantly—less trauma for the person in crisis and their loved ones.

This program keeps families together, helps provide trauma-informed, compassionate care to clients in crisis and lightens the load of law enforcement and fire professionals. But maintaining it without state support would cost counties an additional $169 million a year- an amount they simply cannot bear. And eliminating this statewide investment doesn’t make crises disappear. It simply shifts the burden back to emergency rooms, patrol officers, and families—often at greater human and financial cost.

And there are real people involved here. Consider the man whose brother was having intrusive thoughts about harming himself and others. His family was concerned he’d follow through. Our mobile crisis team responded and got the patient the treatment he needed. Follow-up calls revealed he’d begun consistently taking medication, reconnected with a treatment plan and was attending appointments with his therapist and psychiatrist. Without a mobile response, law enforcement may have gotten involved in this case, which could have led to much worse outcomes.

California should not move backward. Mobile crisis response has become a lifeline: team members are called angels, praised for compassion, and credited with saving lives. We have the know-how, the workforce, and the evidence that this works. Now we need the funding commitment to match the need.

The Legislature should reject the governor’s proposal to eliminate 24/7 mobile crisis response as a statewide benefit. When someone’s worst night arrives, California should be ready to respond, regardless of where in California they live or what hour they call.

Jana Lord is a psychologist and the chief operating officer of Sycamores, a Los Angeles nonprofit providing behavioral health services.