Local team eyes Burlington outreach model to reduce downtown mental-health calls

Committee members described a downtown outreach initiative modeled on Burlington, Vt., where a small outreach team expanded into a multi-person unit providing proactive, after-hours engagement with people experiencing behavioral-health and substance-use challenges.

A presenter said the Burlington program started with a single outreach worker and grew to "5 and a half full-time equivalent" staff, including after-hours personnel who proactively seek out potential issues rather than waiting for police calls. The model focuses on linkage to services—engaging "frequent flyers" who generate the majority of mental-health calls—so merchants and others contact the outreach team rather than 911 when problems do not rise to criminal conduct.

Participants noted the downtown initiative has an initial $10,000 pledge and is looking for additional partners and a county partner to help scale the work. Committee members agreed this outreach approach could decrease police volume by diverting noncriminal behavioral-health situations to specialized teams, but they emphasized the need to clarify funding sources and operational roles before expansion.

The working group asked staff to follow up with initiative leaders and to include the outreach proposal in future discussions about alternatives to incarceration and pretrial diversion.