Takoma Park outlines early results of clinician-led mental-health pilot, council presses for broader data

The Takoma Park City Council heard an update on the city’s behavioral-health pilot program and pressed staff to expand data collection before deciding whether to extend hours or scale the model.

Deputy City Manager Zamara Habte told the council the pilot, which launched a full clinician presence in October, recorded 89 calls from Dec. 1 through Feb. 28, about 1.4 calls per clinician workday. Habte said the program used three response models: clinician-only, co-responder (clinician and police), and police-led responses. Of the 89 calls logged during clinician hours, about 46 (roughly 52%) were clinician-only responses and 27 (about 30%) were co-responder calls; follow-up requests accounted for roughly 70% of incidents in the short dataset.

Habte cautioned the figures represent only the hours clinicians were on site. “This is only measuring the time clinicians were available during business hours,” she said, adding that the city is still refining which data points to collect to evaluate program performance.

Council members raised several technical questions about coverage and how the pilot connects to the statewide 988 mental-health line. Mayor Searcy and others asked whether calls that come in after hours — when county teams or 988 might field them — are being captured and whether those unmeasured calls could change the program’s staffing needs. Habte said after-hours calls are being captured separately for reporting but are not included in the percentages shown for clinician availability.

Dornay Hill, senior administrator for Montgomery County crisis intake and trauma services, told the council the county’s busiest hours are weekdays from noon to 8 p.m., and that the county operates seven mobile crisis teams in peak times with one overnight team. “We have a tiered triage and dispatch protocol,” Hill said, describing clinician-led, co-responder and police-assisted responses countywide.

Council members pressed staff to provide clearer denominators and to add tracking that distinguishes calls originally routed through 988 versus routine 911 calls that later require a clinical response. Habte and county staff said they can add fields to capture call origin and later report on how many referrals begin with 988 and are transferred to 911 for response.

Officials said the pilot’s goal is to provide evidence for a possible countywide model and to identify how many calls can safely be diverted from traditional police response. Council members requested additional data on off-hours need and how call volumes might justify expanding clinician coverage past standard business hours.

Staff said they will produce more granular reporting — including a comparison of calls that fall outside clinician hours — in future updates and will share training modules used for dispatch triage. The council did not vote on any program changes at the meeting; staff will return with expanded data and suggested next steps.