A New Approach to Crisis Response The New Orleans Health Department has joined forces with Resources for Human Development (RHD) to revolutionize emergency mental health care. Through our Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit, we're integrating specialized behavioral health response into the city's 911 system.
About Us
Our Team MCIU brings together licensed clinical social workers, counselors, and peer support specialists under the supervision of mental health clinicians. Each response team includes at least two trained professionals, ensuring comprehensive care during crisis situations.
Our Mission As the fourth branch of New Orleans' 911 emergency response system, we provide innovative, specialized care for behavioral health crises.
Our Commitment We're dedicated to:
- Delivering immediate, compassionate care in comfortable settings
- Reducing emergency room visits through community-based intervention
- Offering an alternative to police response for non-violent mental health emergencies
NOLA MCIU Community Advisory Board
To promote community oversight and ongoing collaboration with program leaders, NOHD is launching a Community Advisory Board (CAB) for the MCIU in partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice. Broadly, CAB members will be tasked with sharing feedback on MCIU policies and performance with NOHD and RHD staff, as well as other relevant agency representatives, to ensure that program activities reflect the insights of directly impacted community members and ultimately meet community needs.
CAB meetings will focus on a range of topics, including:
- programmatic updates;
- community education;
- coordination with other community resources; and
- strategies for ensuring transparency and data-driven implementation.
Register for the CAB
Bilingual community members with Spanish, Vietnamese and ASL knowledge are encouraged to apply!
Upcoming Meetings
Future meetings will be announced here.
Previous Meetings
To learn more about RHD, visit New Orleans Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit - Resources for Human Development (rhd.org)
Frequently Asked Questions
MCIU teams will respond to nonviolent behavioral health calls. There is a wide variety of situations that might fall into that category, including people experiencing psychosis, thoughts of suicide, urgent need for substance use treatment and responses to trauma, for example.
MCIU teams will not respond to any crisis that involves weapons, threats of violence, an active suicide attempt or other medical emergency. In those cases the appropriate emergency responder will be dispatched.
If you or someone you witness appears to be experiencing an emergency behavioral health crisis, dial 9-1-1.
Data from April of 2018 through June of 2021 provided by the Orleans Parish Communication Department (OPCD / “9-1-1 call center”) indicated that about 2,920 calls per year or about 8 calls per day could have been diverted to the New Orleans MCIU teams using these protocols.
The calls diverted to MCIU should further relieve the burden on police and other first responders and subsequently reduce recidivism by providing expert clinicians to deal with complex mental health and social needs, addressing causal factors that is generally not within the scope of law enforcement duties.