Posting Language
Title
Authorize negotiation and execution of an interlocal agreement with the Austin Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center d/b/a Integral Care for an expanded mobile crisis outreach team to provide mental health crises services in collaboration with City first responders, for an initial 12-month term beginning October 1, 2023, in an amount not to exceed $3,265,229, with four 12-month renewal options not to exceed $3,265,229 per renewal option, for a total agreement amount not to exceed $16,326,145.
De
Lead Department
Downtown Austin Community Court
Fiscal Note
Funding in the amount of $3,265,229 is included in the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Downtown Austin Community Court Operating Budget
Prior Council Action:
On August 16, 2023, Council approved Ordinance No. 20230816-008 adopting the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Operating Budget.
For More Information:
Robert Kingham, Court Administrator, Downtown Austin Community Court (512) 974-1394.
Additional Backup Information:
The Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (EMCOT) works with the City of Austin first responders to divert jail bookings and emergency department (ED) admissions and provide short-term community-based interventions to stabilize a person in a psychiatric crisis and link these individuals to Integral Care services or other appropriate care available in the community. EMCOT consists of a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals who operate with a high level of autonomy in a community-based setting, review current medications, prescribe medications, and exercise professional judgement.
Disposition options for law enforcement and the Emergency Medical Services Department are costly to the system, traumatizing for the individual, unnecessarily restrictive, and can include emergency detention, arrest, and/or transport to the nearest emergency room. Additionally, these dispositions can interrupt or conflict with an individual's existing mental health treatment plan a...
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