The year is ending with wonderful news. Santa Rosa’s mobile crisis response program not only survived the city’s financial headwinds; it’s expanding to 24/7 operations.

The three-year-old crisis program called InResponse assists people, many of them homeless, who are experiencing behavioral health crises or other challenges. These are incidents that don’t really need handling by law enforcement, or sometimes firefighters, but before InResponse, there was no one else to call.

InResponse is part of a nationwide realization that communities need intervention alternatives beyond police, who despite expanded training are not social workers. Programs like InResponse take a patient-centered approach, deploying trained crisis workers instead of armed officers and connecting individuals to needed services with follow-up. That method frees law-enforcement officers to deal with crime and other public safety threats. It also routes fewer people through the court system and decreases the number of incidents that might escalate into police use of force.

Mobile response teams also have been formed in Rohnert Park, Cotati, Petaluma and unincorporated Sonoma County.