Cleveland Heights, Richmond Heights, South Euclid and University Heights on May 7 announced plans to adopt a Shaker Heights pilot program using social workers to respond to mental health emergencies.
The program, called First CALL (Crisis Assistance and Local Linkage), aims to improve each city's response to crisis emergencies by embedding a full-time social worker with police and fire departments. Shaker Heights began this practice in 2022.
Having a social worker available alongside police and firefighters allows the city to use the best resources available to respond to these particular emergencies, said Shaker Heights Mayor David Weiss.
This approach "enables our first responders to be redeployed to other, more appropriate situations that may be occurring in our communities, and then relying on the mental health professionals to address the issue in an immediate short term,” he said.