SAN ANTONIO – Statistics show one in five adults living in the United States have a mental illness. In San Antonio, the one-in-five figure could add up to approximately 250,000 people.
“There’s a mental health crisis in America,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said. “This has been going on for decades.”
Call logs show that people in crisis often turn to 911. In 2023, the San Antonio Police Department received more than 32,000 mental health calls to 911.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to address the crisis. The City of San Antonio is resting its hope in SA CORE, but is the program efficient and effective?
That’s the question KSAT explores in our series “Crisis in Question: Measuring San Antonio’s Mental Health Solution.”
WATCH BELOW: Behind the scenes of KSAT’s special project ‘Crisis in Question: Measuring San Antonio’s Mental Health Solution’
What happens during a mental health emergency?
“The worst day you’ve ever had in your life and times it by a million,” said Samantha, a crisis response clinician with SA CORE. “There’s a lot of fear and anxiety.”
These moments of crisis can look different for every person, but common experiences are:
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Mood swings.
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Flashbacks.
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Risk of harm
“You just feel no hope,” Samantha said. “It’s always a series of events.”
Mental health advocates said a crisis can start from a variety of stressful life events. It could be a loved one’s death, a housing change or a natural disaster.
Ernest Stevens, the deputy division director at the Council State Governments Justice Center, said connecting someone with the right resources can make all the difference.
“These calls are very fluid, and they can change over time,” Stevens said. “It’s not going away.”
Stevens said the best response for someone in crisis often is:
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Staying calm.
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Listening to concerns.
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Offering support.
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Encouraging them to seek professional help.
“Safety can no longer be the absence of crime,” Stevens said. “It has to be the presence of well-being.”
What does crisis response look like?
Dozens of cities across the U.S. have created crisis intervention teams to respond directly to 911 mental health calls. Eugene, Oregon has CAHOOTS, Denver has STAR and San Antonio has SA CORE.
“We’re doing everything we can and continuing to learn how we can address this issue better,” Nirenberg said.
Without a crisis response team, when a mental health call comes to 911, police officers are tasked to respond.
“We are not the experts,” SAPD Chief William McManus said. “Police officers were never equipped to deal with mental health calls.”
That’s why SA CORE was created: to bridge the gap during an emergency response.
SA CORE stands for San Antonio Community Outreach and Resiliency Effort. The program was launched in 2022 to de-escalate behavioral health crises and connect people with mental health services.
Currently, the unit responds to approximately 14% of the 911 mental health calls in San Antonio each year.
An SA CORE unit comprised of three team members: a San Antonio Mental Health Unit police officer, a San Antonio Fire Department paramedic and a Center for Health Care Services crisis response clinician.
No single unit across the country looks the same as another. These programs often take a multi-disciplinary approach, but the breakdown of unit staffing usually differs.
How are we reporting this story?
In this series, we’re looking at the most common models of these crisis intervention teams. We’ll compare successes and where room for improvement can be found.
Our reporting takes us through the City of San Antonio and across Bexar County, but we also took a trip to Denver to see a system opposite of SA CORE but one with similar call rates.
The goal of our reporting is to push the conversation forward in crisis response. City leaders, like McManus, said SA CORE was built with longevity in mind.
What is the best way for SA CORE to grow? Is mental health being taken seriously in San Antonio? How should taxpayer dollars be spent to better support people in a mental health crisis?
We’ll answer these questions and more as our series unfolds.
“We want this to be a tool,” Nirenberg said. “We need to apply innovation and expertise to address it.”
“Crisis in Question: Measuring Mental Health in South Texas” will air Monday, Nov. 11 on The Nightbeat with a new episode each night at 10 p.m., culminating on Friday, Nov. 15 at 10 p.m. All episodes can be seen on KSAT, KSAT+, KSAT’s YouTube channel, and KSAT.com.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or thoughts of suicide, call 988 or text TALK to 741-741.
You can also reach out to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) or the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) at 210-223-7233 (SAFE) or 800-316-9241. You can also text NAMI to 741-741.