Butte County's Mobile Crisis Team continues partnering with Local Law Enforcement during this challe

As communities across the county look at ways to handle mental health crisis without relying on law enforcement.

Butte County already has one program in place called Mobile Crisis Team with the Chico PD Target team.

### mental health agencies have seen an increase in calls since the pandemic began.

Now with calls for police reform..

Some communities don't want police involved in those calls.

Action news now reporter 'mackenzie drigo' is live at butte county behavioral health department with how it's handling the situation.

Debbie- it's a team effort- behavioral health director- scott kennelly says the mobile crisis team here at crisis services responds at law enforcements request.

Kennelly says sometimes law enforcement is able to clear a scene so its safe for them to handle alone.

But if notãofficers will stay on scened while the mobile crisis unit team takes over and de-escalates the situation.

Scott kennelly behavioral health director 18 seconds "we do respond to some places without law enforcement for example the schools but we don't go out into unsecure areas like going to someone's home for a welfare check without law enforcement support so we try whenever we can to do the response if it's not required if law enforcement is there but primarily it's a partnership where we work together," ken-nelly says compared to last year they were called out to more than 30 percent fewer cases.

Ken-nelly says both teams participate in joint activities and meetings together to learn the best ways to approach situations.

Ken-nelly says after handling a case its critical to make sure they connect them with services or follow up.

Reporting live at crisis services, mackenzie drigo action news now coverage you can count on.

'ken-nelly' says they are giving a 30-day public comment survey to help improve their system- you can find that information on our website at actionnewsnow dot-com.

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