CARES team expands from HMB closer to Pacifica

In March, the city and El Centro de Libertad launched the Crisis Assistance Response and Evaluation Services program, an alternative response to mental health-related emergency calls. A bilingual mobile team consisting of an EMT and counselor from

El Centro’s Half Moon Bay office responds to nonviolent 911 calls screened and dispatched by the San Mateo County Department of

Public Safety Communications. Effective July 19, CARES has expanded its service range from Montara to Moonridge. 

Much of the system is modeled on CAHOOTS, a mobile crisis intervention program in Eugene, Ore., that received praise for its response method to nonviolent calls. CAHOOTS staff met with the City Council in 2021, providing the framework for Half Moon Bay’s service. The effort requires a lot of communication, training and planning between the county, El Centro and the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.

“The cooperation from law enforcement and deputies on the street has been phenomenal,” El Centro Executive Director Jeff Essex said. “It’s actually more than we anticipated. They’ve been our biggest champions.” 

The partnership has led deputies to ask for CARES assistance in ways the nonprofit initially hoped for but wasn’t sure would be welcome right away, Essex noted. Deputies have asked the CARES team to help settle an argument when a resident was ordered to move out of Coast House, deal with a parking dispute in Moonridge, and help a man found walking down the middle of Highway 92. 

“They’re using us for creative ideas in ways that we knew were possible because of the data from Oregon, but we weren’t really sure there would be that type of embrace of going outside the box,” Essex said.  

For the most part, the program has been successful in its mission, helping at-risk people in the community while taking some of the pressure off of law enforcement, Essex said. From March 16 to June 20, CARES staff responded to 39 calls for service in Half Moon Bay, 29 of which were welfare and mental health checks, according to data provided to the Review.

That ranges from contacting people asleep on the street to talking with someone known to be depressed. In its nearly four months of operations, the CARES team has averaged a seven-minute response and has not called the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office once for emergency backup. CARES workers transported four people for various reasons, including psychiatric treatment, reconnecting with family members, and getting medicine. In two instances, a CARES team helped struggling individuals find a family member near Los Altos and housing services in East Palo Alto. 

Additionally, there have been 25 “in-home stabilizations,” defined as an incident that needed de-escalation or connecting someone with resources that didn’t result in incarceration or hospitalization. El Centro has done 33 follow-ups after calls and 40 “successful referrals” to other long-term services. 

“My opinion going in, even before it started, was if it can help one person, it would be a success,” Sheriff’s Capt. Andrew Armando said. “I think it’s been a great success thus far.”

The team is on call from 11:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday. Starting Sept. 1, El Centro will add a second team so services will be available from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. seven days a week. This is primarily meant to match the team with school hours, as mental health experts say students are in need of services after a period of isolation from the pandemic. 

The local expansion comes as a new suicide prevention hotline is released nationwide. As of July 16, the StarVista Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Center will answer calls related to mental health emergencies made to 988 in San Mateo County. StarVista is one of 13 call centers in California and part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network of Crisis Centers. The national network consists of more than 200 local and state-funded centers throughout the United States. 

Essex said this should have a “huge impact” on CARES, as El Centro is planning to have StarVista screen calls for the CARES team, much in the same way 911 calls are screened by the San Mateo County Public Safety Communications. Essex hopes to have StarVista on board by September. The partnership means that for Coastsiders seeking mental health services, there will be two numbers that can get help to the door.

The 988 calls will be screened to make sure no weapons, crime or medical emergencies are involved before a CARES team responds on the Coastside.