Seattle Fire to roll out new response unit for mental health, substance abuse calls

Many of the nearly 94,000 calls made to emergency services last year didn’t actually require an emergency response, according to city officials.

For the Seattle Fire Department this means less time responding to fires and other emergencies.

SFD is launching a new unit called Health One that will handle lower-level calls. It will become operational in the fall and will respond to certain mental health calls and medical issues related to substance abuse and homelessness.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said this mid-level response will help free up firefighters to do the high-level work they were trained for.

“If we can have a way to connect people to services, to get them the services they need, we will serve them better and we will free up those resources of our fire department,” Durkan said.

The hope is that by intervening at this level, Health One will be able to help solve some of the root problems that end up resulting in the call to emergency services, according to Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins.

“We’re going to listen to them and talk to them. If they have a substance abuse problem we’re going to be able to get them to crisis management. If they need a warm bed to go to we’re going to be able to get them to a shelter. If they need case management we’re going to be able to meet that need,” Scoggins said.

The unit, which will be dispatched by the 911 system, will have two firefighters with additional training partnered with a social worker.

The pilot program costs $500,000.