New 24/7 mobile crisis response team to start in South Bend next summer

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- What is the best way to respond to crisis? Organizations in St. Joseph County are trying to find that answer, ramping up services in recent years. A roughly $1 million grant from the "Mobile Crisis Accelerator Program" (MCAP) will allow one South Bend organization to expand its crisis response.

Oaklawn created South Bend's first 24-hour mobile crisis response team, meaning social workers go out into the community to respond to crises in real time. Now, ABC57 has learned that starting next summer, Imani Unidad will have another team available around the clock.

"The goal is to reduce, eliminate, police response to crises that can better be served by the community, by peers, by licensed professional mental health providers," said Debra Stanley, executive director of Imani Unidad.

Getting help where it's needed, Stanley says, but the right kind of help.

"Mental healthcare is so important, and there are so many of these issues that don't actually require police response, don't require hospitalization, don't require going to jail, and so it's to better support the community, law enforcement, and those kinds of things," Stanley said.

The roughly $1 million grant will allow Imani Unidad to start new mobile crisis response team.

"The grant funds will allow us to purchase the mobile van, and equip it with whatever it needs," Stanley said.

MCAP was recently launched with state funding by Indianapolis-based consulting firm Black Onyx Management.

"Through strengthening crisis response, we're ultimately reducing unnecessary hospital visits in our counties, easing burden from law enforcements agencies, who may or may not need to be involved in crisis response," said MCAP Administrator Jasmine Black.

St. Joseph County made the list of five grant recipients.

"The five counties we originally selected were based on data that showed high rates of behavioral health crises in their communities, really limited mobile response infrastructure that already existed to help diffuse crises, and then really strong potential for immediate impact," Black said.

It's MCAP that chose Imani Unidad.

"[Grant funds] also will allow us to hire these mental health providers, these licensed clinical social workers, the outreach team," Stanley said.

Four full-time and two part-time personnel will be ready to respond around the clock. 911 and other dispatchers will be able to choose whether a call for response is best suited for police or a team like this.

"A culturally responsive team is so important," Stanley said. "People who are embedded in the community who know, so if I go to see you, I also know your cousin..."

It's unclear how MCAP and this particular project, will be funded into the future, but both Stanley and Black say they are committed to working together to create a sustainable mobile crisis response program in Ct. Joseph County.

Stanley says their mobile crisis response team will be ready to be dispatched throughout the community starting June 30, 2026.