For the poor, ill or isolated on the Peninsulas, new help is on the way

Who you gonna call?

For many people who are elderly, confused, isolated or have mental health problems, it’s been 911. Some have become 911 regulars, even if their problem is only a stomach ache or the suspicion that the neighbors are shooting death rays through the walls.

In 2017, Pierce County started a pilot program to reduce dependence on 911 by setting up heavy users with experts that can help them with their problems. It worked. Non-emergency 911 calls dropped, and people got help.

Now that program, called the Mobile Crisis Intervention Response Team, is coming to Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula.

In its 2020 budget, approved last week, the Pierce County Council appropriated $200,000 to extend the MCIRT concept to the west side of the Narrows Bridge.

“The pilot program has been very successful, and I’m glad we’re now able to extend it to the Peninsula,” said Council Member Derek Young, who represents the area.

The program began in the more rural parts of the Spanaway and Parkland areas, Young said, but there was a concentration there of heavy 911 users.

“There were people living in squalid conditions, people with diabetic or other health problems who were undiagnosed or going without care, people with mental health problems who were frequently in crisis,” he said.

The idea of MCIRT, he said, is to intervene quickly and get people into better living conditions, get them the medicine they need, or hook them up with caregiver.

The program is run on contract with a private nonprofit, Comprehensive Life Resources.

Traci Krieg, CLR’s director of behavioral outreach, said the concept is to use fast, mobile interdisciplinary teams that usually include a registered nurse, a para-pharmacist who can prescribe drugs, a mental health professional and a social work case manager who can arrange things like housing or food stamps.

“We see a lot of self-neglect, people living in squalid conditions, a lot of people with very complex health medical issues who are using emergency medical services for things they were never intended for,” she said. “A lot of our referrals come from first responders.”

She estimates that about half of the clients her teams serve are geriatric, and the rest have mental or behavioral health problems.

It’s a particularly acute problem in rural areas like the Key Peninsula, she said.

“Many people moved to these areas because they didn’t want people to bother them, and then they start having health problems and don’t have anywhere to turn,” she said.

Kreig said working with isolated, suspicious and stubborn older people is a matter of gaining trust.

“We might start out by bringing them a small bag of groceries, or maybe some pet food,” she said. “Then we can have some conversations, like, “You know, you really need a caregiver.”

The program is free to clients and does not require health insurance. The financing is complicated, Council Member Young said, but basically the county is managing a grant from Elevate Health, a free-standing agency funded partially by the state, and part of the system that manages state Medicaid.

MCIRT teams don’t work specifically with homeless people, although their parent agency has another program that does, Kreig said. The two programs refer people to one another.

“Our focus is working to keep people in their homes, so they don’t become homeless

The Gig Harbor/Peninsula team hasn’t been formed yet, she said, because “things moved very quickly once it got to the county council. But our plan is to have a team over there at least a couple days a week.”

She said the organization is looking for a small office on one of the two peninsulas.

The teams are highly mobile, with EMT-like vehicles, but they still need “somewhere to plant their feet” on this side of the bridge, she said.

Pierce County is bringing a crisis team to the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsulas to get faster help to people who are elderly, isolated or have mental health problems.

Pierce County has appropriated $200,000 in the 2020 budget to extend a behavioral health crisis program to the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsulas.

That will mean faster help for people who are elderly, isolated or have mental health problems, said Council Member Derek Young

The team, known as a Mobile Crisis Intervention Resource Team

This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 12:00 AM.