Vallejo police choose established Bay Area nonprofit to run mobile crisis response

VALLEJO – The Vallejo Police Department has selected the San Francisco and Alameda County-based Felton Institute to operate a new behavioral and mental health crisis response unit, the department announced Tuesday.

The department plans to have the Integrated Health and Resource Team (IHART)  unit up and running next month, said project coordinator Caitlyn Nguyen. IHART will respond to mental health and social service related calls to connect individuals in crisis with services through de-escalation techniques and trauma-informed care. 

The program is intended to provide intervention and medical care from clinicians and social workers to reduce the role of law enforcement and avoid triggers or escalation that can occur in mental health crisis response. The department estimates that 70% of mental health related calls can be handled by the crisis response unit.

Felton Institute operates a variety of social service programs in San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties including substance abuse, mental health services and programs for those who are housing insecure, unhoused or formerly incarcerated.

The organization currently operates the Angelo Quinto Community Response Team for the city of Antioch, which provides services similar to those planned for Vallejo’s IHART program.

The department has received $900,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Justice to implement the program since last year. But after posting requests for proposals twice, the city had received only one applicant as of July. The department then reissued the request for proposals in August and received submissions from three qualified applicants.

Felton won out against national healthcare provider TrueCare24 and Vacaville-based TabiMOMS, which focuses on removing barriers to mental and behavioral health.

TrueCare24 began its operations as a start-up in 2016. The business is headquartered in Tampa, Florida and has operations in Georgia, Wisconsin, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska as well as contracts with the U.S. Navy, but does not have specific experience in operating mobile community crisis intervention teams.

TabiMOMS seeks to expand access to populations that have been historically excluded from mental health care, such as Black and Indigenous communities, people of color, LGBTQ+ communities and youth or those impacted by foster care or criminal justice systems. It was founded by Courtney Davis this year in response to her personal experiences seeking mental and behavioral health care for her daughter Tabitha, the namesake of the company. 

The department selected Felton institute because of their experience with Antioch’s program and because of the organization’s familiarity with the Bay Area and the unique needs of Vallejo, it said in a statement.  

According to Felton’s application, the organization has nearly 400 employees, 200 volunteers, manages 30 contractors and is San Francisco’s oldest nonsectarian social service provider.

The nonprofit's proposal cited experience providing outreach services for homeless residents in San Francisco who face behavioral challenges, including providing basic essentials at encampments and connecting 60 people a month with substance abuse providers, mental health services, medical care and housing services. 

Vallejo police held a town hall meeting last Wednesday to present the three applicants and collect community input. The meeting was attended by 25 people and the department press release stated that Felton’s proposal received the most positive feedback. 

However, some participants suggested that the presentation did not provide enough background for participants to make an informed choice.

Solano County already operates a limited mobile crisis team, but county Supervisor Monica Brown, who attended the meeting, said that it has not been in use in Vallejo. Brown said all law enforcement agencies from other cities in the county had committed to provide backup to the county’s crisis response team but the Vallejo police did not provide that reassurance, so county officials chose not to send the team to Vallejo.

Vallejo police Capt. Bobby Knight, who led the department’s presentation, said that several years ago he responded to calls with the Solano County crisis response unit and the officers provided a barricade while the crisis unit worked to resolve the situation peacefully and without force. The dual response is preferred in instances where there is danger, he said.

But Knight added, “I don’t know if we can reassure 100%, if we have four or five officers on the street that we can guarantee that someone will respond.”

Felton division director of justice services Curtis Penn  said that it is often difficult to tell if backup from law enforcement is needed until crisis workers arrive on the scene.

Penn described Felton’s experience with the Antioch crisis response unit as well as some of the organization's work in San Francisco’s Tenderloin area. He stressed that building strong relationships with law enforcement has been key to the success of the agency’s projects. 

One element of the program that Knight said has been surprisingly difficult is purchasing vans to build out for the program. He said the department has been searching up and down the state to find suitable vehicles but he intends to have this resolved in the coming weeks.

Once the vans are purchased and the necessary equipment is installed they will be painted with their own IHART logo. The vans will not have the police department logo to reduce any tension that may arise as a result of the association.

The department put out a call for Vallejo artists to design the logo, but at Wednesday’s meeting Knight noted that they have received very few submissions. Artists interested in designing a logo for the IHART vans can find more information and a submission portal at www.myvallejo.com/ihart-vpd.