Kingston Mayor Steven T. Noble has announced that his city has launched a Mobile Mental Health pilot program.
The program, which is coordinated in conjunction with Ulster County and Access: Support for the Living, will pair a mental health care specialist with a Kingston Fire Department Emergency Medical Technician to staff a mobile response unit. The Mobile Mental Health response team of social worker and EMT will have a dedicated ambulance and will provide person-centric crisis response to mental health emergency calls.
The team will work weekdays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will respond to calls within Kingston.
“We are proud to launch this new service as the first municipality upstate to implement a mobile mental health program,” said Noble. “We recognized that, with the growing mental health crisis, the need to provide more specialized services for our residents. With our highly trained fire department and a mental health professional, we will be able to provide the support our community needs in situations that would have previously involved law enforcement.”
Photo courtesy City of Kingston
