Mental Health Professionals– A New Type of First Responder

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Mental Health Professionals– A New Type of First Responder



First Portland Street Response team working in the Lents neighborhood.


First Responders, such as firefighters, paramedics, and police, are vital to the health of our communities. However, this past year, with the many movements protesting the brutality of police towards our black and brown communities and those with mental health issues, it is obvious that we need to make a drastic change.


Police are often called to a scene where an individual is suffering a mental health crisis. The problem, police officers are not mental health professionals and may not be equipped to appropriately handle the situation. The City of Portland is making a big change in how these emergency calls are responded to. On February 16, of this year the Portland Street Response (PSR) program was launched. PSR offers a non-police response to assist people experiencing houselessness or low acuity behavioral/mental health crisis. Currently, the city has two teams comprised of a program manager, a firefighter/paramedic, a mental health crisis clinician, and two community health workers. Teams are dispatched by 911 operators for calls that involve people outside or in public spaces who need a welfare check because of erratic behavior, drug or alcohol affects, or for a person who needs a face-to-face mental health check.


The program is currently in its trial phase and only serving the area surrounding the southeast Portland neighborhood of Lents with two PSR teams. City council members are working to expand this program to cover neighborhoods city wide. Residents can find out if their address is within the service area by using the PSR interactive map. PSR also has also created a dashboard so the public can access their call data.


If we as a community want to make a positive impact on our growing houseless population and work towards reducing the number of people without safe homes, then we need to increase our efforts to provide more mental health services that are easier for them to access. We need more mental health providers to meet our houseless population where they are, on the streets.


Become a part of this new group of first responders.  Follow Portland Street Response on Twitter and Facebook to be updated on the latest job opportunities or check out the Job Opportunities page for the City of Portland.



For more information on the program and to stay up to date on the expansion efforts visit:


 Web: www.portland.gov/streetresponse


Facebook: PDXStreetResponse


Twitter: @PDXStResponse


Email: psrinfo@portlandoregon.gov




Portland Street Response Dashboard





Published by Denyse Stawicki

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