Lexington is taking a different approach in its response to mental health emergencies.

The city recently received an $850,000 grant to start a community based crisis response team made up of members of the city's police and fire departments and a full time mental health professional.

City officials and emergency responders are calling the new team a game changer.

The reality is that we make a lot of mental health runs.

A lot of them are maybe disguised as other things.

But when you look at the role numbers 911 or not, one center answered, four on the fireside took 3009 one calls for behavioral or mental health concerns or suicidal ideation.

And now when calls come in, police officers and maybe the fire department has responded and they've gone out and solve the immediate crisis.

But we end up getting a referral.

Our hope is now that we can maybe get engage on the front end a little bit more, maybe as opposed to being a reactionary after after a few days.

Are passed or whatever.

We do not have a lot of options for people who are in mental health crisis.

Sometimes they go to jail, sometimes they go to one of the hospitals for just an emergency.

Short term look.

But a lot of times they get there and it's not really something that we can deal with with this person who helps respond to these crises.

It will really improve the outcomes of people.

Something that's happening in a lot of other communities is is teaming up a police officer with a mental health resource and engaging the community at the time of a call.

The plan is that we're going to be utilizing off duty Lexington police officers teamed up with this mental health resource, be in the car together, and being able to take the number one call instead of it going to a patrol officer.

The intentions, the police officer will be there to provide the security and then the mental health person will be able to provide the the de-escalation that may need to take place, provide the resources.

This was a recommendation of my 2020 Commission on Racial Justice and Equality.

And so right there it is.

And we have been focused on doing something like this.

I think it will help us build a better system for response to people in an emergency.

They have a health issue, and I think this also helps destigmatize the mental health view that a lot of people have.

I think the biggest benefit is going to be the individuals that we're interacting with, those individuals that are in crisis.

You know, it's providing the right service and the right care at the right time to the right person.

And when we can do that and meet them where they are, that's an enormous lift for us to have a specific, targeted response to someone who's not having criminal behavior, who is in a mental health crisis.

It will really improve the outcomes of people.

The grant is for three years.

Lexington plans to launch its crisis response team by August.