City of South Bend hosts Community Action Group to address mental health emergency responses

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- Community members were brought together Tuesday for a Community Action Group to discuss city efforts to better address mental health concerns.

Efforts to create a mental health crisis center and mobile response unit are underway in South Bend, through Oaklawn Psychiatric and Beacon Health.

Oaklawn gets 60 to 80 calls a week, and deploys a pilot crisis response team five to 15 times a week.

According to the Director of Adult Services, John Horsely, they only run Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Those hours will be extended to 8 p.m. this month, he said, and the mobile unit is set to run 24/7 by march 2023.

Horsely said these efforts have been a priority for Oaklawn, and the recent shooting has only given them more support.

“We’ve been very committed and very vigilant and dedicated a lot of resources to making this happen,” he said. “I don’t see the pressure from the community has escalated it. But what I’m encouraged by is that the community coming on board and partnering with us to see the need and to help us implement this in the community. It’s been outstanding.”

The structured Community Action Group broke up participants into groups with facilitators to address the following:

• What would an effective crisis response procedure look like to you?
• Based on the work underway… what else would you like to see implemented in South Bend?
• Review and offer constructive criticism of the current crisis response procedure policy.

One facilitator, Charlotte Pfeifer, shared a takeaway from her group discussion.

“We need people to speak up,” Pfeifer said. “Whenever administration says that is causes division, that’s very insensitive. In fact, we need more people to speak up.”

A Q&A with South Bend Mayor James Mueller followed the group discussions.

Dante Kittrell’s mother Marcia, who was in attendance, stormed out after confronting the mayor, and asking why she couldn’t be part of the de-escalation efforts during her son’s police standoff.

At the end of the meeting, community members put some pressure on Mayor Mueller to announce next steps, demanding a follow-up to tonight’s meeting. No such timeline has been given, but notes from the facilitators will make their way to the mayor’s desk to help guide any upcoming changes in the city.