New Orleans’ Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit has quietly turned into a round-the-clock fixture of the city’s 911 system, stepping into thousands of behavioral health emergencies that once almost automatically drew police cars and ambulances. City officials say the civilian-led teams are resolving hundreds of crises right where they happen, keeping people out of patrol cars and crowded ERs while giving first responders breathing room for other emergencies.
According to New Orleans CityBusiness, the Health Department’s 2025 report shows the MCIU answered 3,769 behavioral health calls and averaged a 17-minute response time. The report says the unit diverted nearly 40% of mental health calls away from police, fire and EMS, completed behavioral health handoffs in 87% of applicable cases, and achieved a 75% follow-up success rate. City figures also show the unit resolved more than 450 incidents on scene in 2025 without transporting people to hospitals.
How the teams work
The MCIU sends out civilian behavioral health professionals, including licensed clinicians, crisis workers and peer supporters, who typically respond in pairs to nonviolent calls and focus on de-escalation, assessment and connecting people to services. A first-year evaluation by Resources for Human Development found 2,448 face-to-face interventions in year one and reported an average response time of roughly eight minutes during June 2023 through May 2024. The city’s program page notes that MCIU is dispatched through 911 as a fourth branch of emergency response and now operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Hospital partnership and capacity
City officials say MCIU teams coordinate closely with University Medical Center New Orleans when someone does need to be hospitalized, routing people to the appropriate level of care. LCMC Health / UMC advertises a 60-bed inpatient behavioral health unit and a 26-bed behavioral health emergency room on its service pages, and leaders say that link helps ease pressure on the broader emergency department. Even so, evaluators and advocates warn that limited inpatient capacity and uneven outpatient follow-up remain bottlenecks as call volume climbs.
A model with limits
National experts tracking New Orleans’ rollout say civilian-led crisis response can cut down on unnecessary arrests and hospital visits, but only if there is steady funding and solid support once the immediate crisis passes. The Vera Institute has highlighted New Orleans’ program as a promising example and has urged cities to build public dashboards and infrastructure that can carry alternative first-response systems beyond the pilot phase. The RHD evaluation similarly recommends continued investments in staffing, tighter dispatch integration and stronger post-crisis community supports to preserve the early gains.
"Mental health is just as important as physical health," Deputy Mayor Dr. Jennifer Avegno said in a city statement, pointing to the MCIU’s role in connecting residents with care instead of cuffs or long waits in the ER. City officials and provider partners say they will keep tracking response times, handoffs and follow-up outcomes as the program grows, while advocates argue that lawmakers will have to fund more beds and community services to keep up. For now, the shift to 24/7 service marks a clear change in how New Orleans handles many 911 calls involving people in crisis.
Sources: New Orleans CityBusiness; Resources for Human Development; City of New Orleans; LCMC Health / UMC; Vera Institute.
