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Cincinnati police are trying out a new method to deal with mental health runs. It involves technology and the ability to connect distressed individuals with trained professionals on the spot.The whole idea is to cut down on wait time because the police know in emergency mental health situations every second counts.Officers like Lt. Chris Rhuemer, who demonstrated the method to media Thursday afternoon, have been relying on their mobile phones to reach mental health professionals at difficult scenes. This week, they upped their game with iPad tablets.”In real-time, we’re able to connect with the social worker,” explained Ruehmer as the face of a mental health pro appeared on his screen.Via video, that trained expert could speak with an individual needing mental assistance. It’s a timesaving screen at the scene, if you will.Police know there’s a narrative out there that they don’t work with mental health teams. Chief Eliot Isaac said he hears it all the time and it gnaws at him.”We’ve had this partnership since 1986. We respond together literally thousands of calls for service for those in mental health crisis,” Isaac stated.In a news release, the UC Health Mobile Crisis Team said it received nearly 3,000 calls for assistance last year alone. According to the release, those calls resulted in 1,339 visits to homes, agencies or sites of a crisis. “All of the team’s two dozen employees are licensed social workers with master’s degrees. They provide emergency interventions such as crisis counseling, information and referral, and psychosocial assessments to determine the immediate needs of the individual,” the release stated.Officers receive mental health training, but they’re not mental health professionals. Isaac stated that the vast majority of runs are nonviolent; situations where a distressed person just needs to hear the right words.Police didn’t have to expand the UC Health Mobile Crisis Team into a Telehealth unit. But they were looking for an opportunity to do so.”It’s not either/or,” Isaac emphasized. “It’s us together in partnership that we believe our citizens get the best service that they can get.”More than $600,000 in state and local grants are paying for the new telehealth program.Some officers at District Four started carrying the tablets Tuesday. They had yet to use one when the demonstration was done for the media Thursday afternoon.Police want to see over time how much use the 10 tablets get, how much they help and then determine if there’s a need for more.

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