Expanding Alternative Emergency Response in New Orleans

Project Context: 

• In 2023, the City of New Orleans Health Department (NOHD) launched the Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit (MCIU), a team operated by licensed clinical social workers and counselors from a local nonprofit partner. 
• One of the program’s goals was to divert nonviolent emergency behavioral health calls away from police and other emergency first responders, opting instead for an unarmed community response team able to handle 911 calls alone.  
• Dispatch data shows MCIU responding to many 911 calls with other agencies. Stakeholders are interested in maximizing the number of calls MCIU can take independently. 
• In 2024, the GPL began working with New Orleans through our Alternative 911 Emergency Response Implementation Cohort to identify barriers to the program’s goals through process improvement and data-informed decision-making.  

How the GPL is Supporting: 

• Designing and analyzing a process map to identify areas that may prevent direct dispatch of MCIU to qualifying 911 calls. 
• Resolving process challenges indicated in the map by using data-driven performance management tools to increase the: 
  • Number of 911 calls directly dispatched to MCIU.  
  • Percentage of MCIU solo responses (responses without another first response agency), per qualifying call.