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County mental-health authority outlines 24/7 crisis partnership with Saginaw police, council discusses contract
Summary
Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority staff described 24/7 crisis response, hospital-based teams and officer training; council members asked for details on hours, funding and coordination and thanked staff for expanding services.
The Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority detailed a long-running partnership with Saginaw police that embeds crisis staff in emergency rooms, provides officer training and offers mobile response to behavioral-health calls.
Nancy Johnson, supervisor of Scribe Intervention Services at Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority, said her team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and has an office embedded in Covenant Emergency Room. "My staff and myself are present 24 hours a day," Johnson told council. She described routine work with officers at roll call, new‑officer orientation and on-scene consultation through a dedicated law-enforcement line.
Johnson said the authority is expanding mobile response and stabilization (MRSS) teams and county-wide training. "Research says about 20% of all calls in a city this size have a component of mental health," she said, adding that in February the Saginaw City Police responded to more than 5,000 calls for service. She said the authority also supports Narcan distribution and worked on cross-sector trainings and a grant-funded series of community-officer interaction luncheons.
Council Q&A: Council members asked how the service reaches people who are not already in the mental-health system, whether the service can go into homes or to people identified by officers, and how the authority coordinates with housing and homeless services. Johnson said the program offers follow-up, a "high risk" list for repeat calls and that MRSS staff can respond directly to calls and provide next-day follow-up to reduce repeated police responses. Christy (executive director) clarified that Medicaid block funding and other grants cover services and that the proposed contract would pay for additional staff time to assure continuous coverage.
Next steps: Council asked staff to proceed with the contract language on the agenda, continued coordination with the police department and to bring back any required contract actions for formal adoption. Council members commended the authority for building strong operational ties with police and for focusing on training and response to reduce high‑risk encounters.
