On January 28th, we had a very informative discussion with Director Marvin and Wes Albers from PERT.
In 1996, PERT (Psychiatric Emergency Response Team) program was established in San Diego county. In fiscal year 2019-2020:
- PERT Clinicians (Law Enforcement and EMS combined) conducted 35,701 contacts in the community.
- PERT provided 12,340 Crisis Interventions (of which 5,750 or 47% were diverted from a 5150 hospital transport for other community resources) and 23,361 Community Service interventions.
- PERT Clinicians provided 9,413 crisis intervention services to persons identifying as being homeless.
- PERT attempted crisis resolution contact, but was unable to do so (e.g., person could not be located or declined to interact) an additional 7,695 occasions (thus, a total of 20,035 Crisis Interventions were attempted).
Mark Marvin, Ph.D. (Vice President of Community Research Foundation, PERT Division – Director) and Wes Albers (PERT Community & Law Enforcement Liaison) will address an overview of PERT including its history, the role of the PERT unit, and training provided to first responders.
Community Research Foundation, Inc. (2020). What is PERT? http://www.comresearch.org/pert.php