Big changes are coming to Nashville's approach to mental health emergencies. Starting tomorrow, the entire county will have access to the Partners in Care program. Launched in June 2021, the program has made strides in addressing situations often too complex for traditional law enforcement tactics. It's a unique setup where Mental Health Cooperative clinicians team up with trained officers from the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to respond to calls.

According to the city’s announcement, the West Precinct is the last segment to join this initiative, making the service available all over Nashville. It's fair to say, the numbers speak for themselves — more than 27,000 calls involving the Partners in Care teams have gone down since its inception, and out of that hefty sum, 6,015 dealt with a mental health crisis. On the training front, 279 MNPD officers and 93 supervisors have now been through an additional 40 hours of crisis intervention instruction.

For those looking to get the inside scoop on the program's impact, a media avail is set for Wednesday afternoon at the West Precinct, where the bigwigs from the MNPD's Office of Alternative Policing Strategies and Mental Health Cooperative will be gabbing about the program's success and its fundamental role in the community.

The Partnership is considered a milestone, changing perspectives on how law enforcement can and should interact with individuals facing mental health challenges. It's about understanding, it's about safety, and ultimately, it's about enhancing the quality of responses to some of the most vulnerable situations unfolding on the streets of Nashville.