The city of Rochester's Person in Crisis Team is expanding with seven new “peer navigators,” who are being added using funding from the state.
The PIC team sends crisis counselors to respond to calls involving mental health substance use issues. The peer navigators its adding using $2 million in state money are meant to be people with lived experience who can help better serve people on the street.
“We do believe that our PIC team members are definitely very relatable,” said Alia Henton-Williams, manager of the city’s Crisis Intervention Services Unit. “They're from the community. They're neighbors. They're pumping gas next to you. You might see them in the grocery store. But peer navigators bring something different and special to community members, because they can directly relate to a lot of what we see community members are dealing with.”
The PIC Team was awarded the funding for peer navigators as part of a state pilot program that aims to create a network of crisis response teams.
Central Nassau Guidance & Counseling Services and Children’s Home of Jefferson County also received $2 million each.
PIC was formed in early 2021, after the death of Daniel Prude the year before. Prude was in the middle of a mental health crisis, naked and acting erratically, when police found him on Jefferson Avenue on a cold March night. Officers restrained him. He vomited and lost consciousness, and died a week later at Strong Memorial Hospital
The images of him restrained with a cloth “spit hood” placed over his head became an enduring image that sparked protest, the firing of a police chief, and calls to change how police respond to mental health crisis.
It also led advocates and lawmakers to rally for the passage of Daniel’s Law at the state level.
Sen. Samra Brouk, D-Rochester, introduced legislation to establish Daniel’s Law in 2021 and reintroduced it every session since. That bill, which has never made it out of committee, would establish a statewide emergency and crisis response council. That group would work with local governments to develop "preventive, rehabilitative, crisis response, and treatment services."
Brouk said that while the bill is pending, the pilot funding is a good start.
“The statewide enthusiasm for creating non-police, peer-led compassionate responses to individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis is encouraging, and we must build upon this momentum,” Brouk said in a statement. “I am grateful that the city of Rochester was selected as a recipient of this award, and has the opportunity to prevent tragedies like the loss of Daniel Prude’s life.”
The PIC Team has received over 30,000 calls since its launch in 2021, the vast majority of which originated from 911 calls, according to city data. Sometimes staffers respond with the Rochester Police Department, and other times on their own.
Of the calls, 7,058 led to a medical health transport; 1,162 resulted in a person being transported somewhere else; and only 160 involved a person declining services. Across all those calls, 55 people were arrested during a PIC response, or about .2%.
“We would like for the numbers to be zero, but one of the two goals that were put into place when the Person in Crisis Team was implemented was to lower the number of arrests for those having a crisis, as well as to lower the hospitalizations or emergency room visits, and so we're definitely pleased about those numbers,” Henton-Williams said.
The funding for the additional peer navigators is included in the proposed city budget for next year. City Council members will vote on that budget this month.
