Alternative Transport Model for Mental Health Emergencies Marks One Year
A new behavioral health transportation model in Oklahoma is being hailed as a significant step toward eliminating stigma and decriminalizing mental health.
Oklahoma is the first state in the nation to implement a statewide alternative approach to psychiatric transport services. Nov. 1, 2022, marked the one-year anniversary of a new law allowing the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services the ability to transport people experiencing a mental health emergency. Previously, law enforcement was primarily responsible for crisis transport.
“The back of a police car is not the best place for someone experiencing a mental health crisis,” said ODMHSAS Commissioner Carrie Slatton-Hodges. “Oklahoma has found a way to change this approach, which creates a perception of criminality that, in turn, furthers a reluctance among many to ask for help before crisis occurs.”
Since initiating the program, ODMHSAS contractors have provided more than 12,000 transports that otherwise would have required taking police officers off the streets to transport people in mental health crisis sometimes halfway across the state.
The new law allows for alternative transportation options when someone must be sent to a facility outside a 30-mile radius of a law enforcement officer’s operational headquarters. Officers still must transport individuals in need of treatment if the closest treatment facility is within 30 miles.
“Because of our location, Wagoner is the only facility we take anyone to now that is inside that radius,” said Muskogee Police Department Deputy Chief Chad Farmer. “It is much closer and only takes about 15-20 minutes, compared to traveling to someplace like Lawton or Ponca City or Enid. Having to go outside that radius really put us in a bind, because we don’t have that many officers on the street and we’d have to call somebody out of service to transport, so this has helped us a bunch.”
ODMHSAS works within the existing regionally based treatment system to dispatch transport services greater than 30 miles for those in need of acute psychiatric treatment, said Slatton-Hodges.
When the facility is greater than 30 miles away, vendors contracting with ODMHSAS provide transportation services using unmarked vehicles with specially trained drivers to transport individuals to that facility.
“Providing safe, secure transportation that is trauma-informed and focused on the individual’s recovery is the ultimate goal of change,” said Slatton-Hodges.
Law enforcement officials have been some of the more vocal proponents of this change, advocating for a better practice that provides a more appropriate transportation option and promotes operational efficiency.
Like many Oklahoma communities, Muskogee’s police department handles a large volume of mental health-related calls. With a population of approximately 37,000 and only 85 police officers to cover all shifts, constantly taking officers off the street, with two required to transport patients to available facilities, they have been required to pay overtime, call in extra officers and pay extra for fuel, noted Farmer.
“We constantly have mental health calls in Muskogee,” he said. “From a patrol and financial standpoint, in the past, we used to have to take people to Enid or Ponca City, sometimes Lawton, so we are saving in time, travel and overtime costs.”
Trips across the state can take hours and even involve overnight stays, which also reduces available public safety response.
For more information about the new transportation system, how the process works and regional transport service options, visit the Comprehensive Crisis Response page.
