Full Notification

The Morgan Hill Police Department is proud to announce its partnership with the Santa Clara County Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) to proactively connect individuals suffering from mental health illness to services. While the MCRT is available Mon-Fri 8 am to 8 pm to the public, on Thursdays a trained police supervisor will be teamed with a clinician to follow up with individuals in our community that have generated multiple police calls for service due to a mental health illness. The team will also respond to in-progress calls for service as needed to move patients away from the criminal justice system by connecting them to the appropriate care.

Morgan Hill Police Corporal Mindy Zen and a County of Santa Clara Behavioral Health Services clinician began their work February 25th, 2021. During the first two Thursdays of the program, both Corporal Zen and the clinician found success because people were more open to accepting services when not in a crisis. They were able to develop cross-system collaboration, improving responses and outcomes for individuals with mental illness. The Police Department will continue this one-day-a-week program until the Behavioral Health Services Department completes its hiring process for two additional licensed mental health clinicians for the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT). The two additional clinicians are funded by a grant awarded to the County of Santa Clara that will be assigned to Morgan Hill.

The ultimate goal of partnering with mental health clinicians is to de-escalate conflicts between patients and law enforcement, provide safe and timely options and reduce recidivism among high-risk individuals with mental illness and substance abuse challenges.

Corporal Zen has completed the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) and will attend advanced cross-system training with county clinicians, along with completing an additional
de-escalation course. MCRT will also assist with follow-up referrals generated by the Behavioral Health Services Department and the Morgan Hill Police Department.

The Morgan Hill Police Department is committed to providing services to those in need regardless of their ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, and or creed.

The MCRT team is available to our community through their hotline 1-800-704-0900 for services Mon-Fri 8 am to 8 pm.

View this link for a short video about the MCRT: https://youtu.be/txQeOw-Bonw