LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville's mental health diversion program, designed to divert phone calls from the Louisville Metro Police Department to non-police response teams, has expanded their hours once again.
Tuesday, Mayor Craig Greenberg as well as leaders from Seven County Services, Emergency Services and LMPD, announced the Crisis Call Diversion Program (CCDP) will expand its service hours to 10 a.m. - 2 a.m. beginning Sunday, Feb. 4.
Prior to the hours expansion, the crisis call center operated from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
“From ensuring Louisvillians in crisis receive the best care possible to freeing up hours for our LMPD officers to focus on violent crime, the Crisis Call Diversion Program has been a huge success for our city,” Greenberg said. “These additional service hours will help build on this progress as we work with urgency to make Louisville a safer, stronger and healthier city for all our people.”
Since the pilot program was launched in 2022, the CCDP has resulted in more than 2,700 Crisis Triage Worker (CTW) encounters, with the average encounter lasting about 16 minutes, though some can last more than an hour.
In 2023 alone, the MetroSafe 911 Center deflected more than 1,800 calls to a non-police response. The Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) made more than 700 mobile runs to help nearly 500 unique individuals, with the average mobile encounter lasting about 40 minutes in duration.
“We started Deflection in the Fourth Division because data showed that’s where we had the most mental health calls in the past,” Emergency Services Executive Director Jody Meiman said. “By tracking when and where calls that meet the criteria of the program are coming in from, it showed us where we should go next, which was to expand service hours through the daytime and into the late hours of the night to get people the right help they need on the spot.”
These deflection efforts relieve LMPD officers of hundreds of hours of time that might have been spent on the calls, further allowing officers to focus on violent crime.
“We are grateful for this much needed expansion of resources. LMPD remains committed to providing protection and quality service to all residents and visitors. Our top priority is public safety, and the Deflection Program will allow us to focus our attention on continuing to reduce violent crime,” LMPD Deputy Chief Steven Healey said.
As of Feb. 4, Seven Counties Services will have 34 staff members dedicated to Deflection response, including 11 CTWs at MetroSafe and 19 Mobile Crisis Responders. Officials want to further expand to 24-hour service soon.
“The Deflection program seeks to provide support in the moment to persons experiencing crisis while providing connection to ongoing resources to help folks stay safely and supported in their communities,” Nicole Wiseman, Unit Manager for Deflection, Seven Counties Services, said. “Our services are voluntary, trauma-informed, person centered, and focused on harm reduction. We seek to provide care in the least restrictive, least invasive way possible. We seek to collaborate with our community partners to provide the best care possible to individuals in crisis. Finally, we seek to break the cycle of unnecessary hospitalization and incarceration.”
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