A program that responds to mental health crisis situations has continued to see a strong demand in Wichita. The City Council heard a report Tuesday on the ICT-1 program.
The Integrated Care Team combines a Wichita police officer with an EMS paramedic and a mental health professional to respond to people in the community who are in a mental health crisis. The ICT-1 program began as a pilot program in 2019 and then became a permanent program in 2020.
Program manager Malachi Winters told the City Council that in 54 percent of the cases during 2020, the team was able to provide treatment at the scene. In about 33 percent of the cases, there was transport to a hospital, and in about nine percent of the cases the person was turned over to law enforcement or another agency.
Winters said there is more demand than the ICT-1 team can handle, and there are situations where police have been unable to call on the team because it was not in service or it was handling another case. The team has been operating Monday through Thursday, and Winters said more staffing is needed to create more times for a seven-day-a-week response. He said that is not being recommended now because county agencies like Comcare and EMS are having staffing shortages, and they don’t have people to commit to the program.
City Manager Robert Layton said he will be talking with Sedgwick County officials soon to talk about staffing and recruitment issues. He said the Sedgwick County Commission has been supportive of the program and would like to look at options for expansion.
