CBS News
There aren’t enough mental health counselors to respond to 911 calls. One county sheriff has a virtual solution.
Officer Dave Stiak didn’t know what to expect when he got the call that someone was hanging over the railing of a bridge in Lemont, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.
Stiak, a police officer for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, was on patrol with his partner in February when the calls started to come in.
“He was standing outside of the safety railing, people were calling out to him,” Stiak said. “He wasn’t responding. He was looking off into the sunset. They said the guy looks like he’s going to jump.”
Stiak gradually got closer to the man, making sure not to rush him.
“I was able to reach out, put a hand on his shoulder and console this man… I give the man a hug,” Stiak said. “My partner was there at the right time. We pulled him back over the railing.”
Ryan Beard/CBS News
The outcome was a good one, but could have easily been worse. Stiak is the first to admit police are not best qualified to counsel people in crisis.
“They don’t train you [like] this is exactly what you do: This is the step A through Z of how to talk someone off of a bridge,” Stiak said. “It’s not really a police thing.”
New ways to de-escalate mental health crises
Calls like the one Stiak encountered are why cities nationwide are experimenting with new ways to de-escalate mental health crises. After the incident, Stiak gave the man a card with contact information for the sheriff office’s Treatment Response Team, which can get involved during or after a mental health call.
The team is available 24/7, and while some alternate programs can send a limited number of mental health workers into the streets, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office puts clinicians in the field as part of the 911 call response virtually – via Zoom.
The sheriff’s office launched the Co-Responder Virtual Assistance Program, or CVAP, in late 2020. It lets officers patch-in clinicians via tablets to talk directly with those in crisis at the scene without putting the counselors in danger.
Across the U.S., about one in four deadly law enforcement shootings involves a person with a serious mental illness, according to a report from the Treatment Advocacy Center, an organization that pushes for reforms to treat mental health issues.
“Ultimately in these situations where you’re encountering somebody in crisis, the best you can hope for is you walk away and they walk away safely,” Stiak said.
The new Co-Responder Virtual Assistance Program
Elli Montgomery, executive director of the Treatment Response Team, recounted the first co-responder case, which she considered a success.
“An officer that was very hesitant to work with us and not interested in doing this, but had tried everything to de-escalate an individual who was off their medication, is a boxer, suffering from bipolar disorder,” she described. “He had used some substances. He was not stable.”
Courtesy of Cook County Sheriff’s Office
Montgomery said the man repeatedly engaged in self-harming behavior.
“He was banging his head on the floor,” she said. “He had hit his head. Just trying to crack open his head against the wall.”
That’s when a sergeant on scene gave the man a tablet. Body camera video from the officers on scene shows the man sitting in a chair as Montgomery listened to and spoke with him. He was able to discuss what happened and Montgomery eventually convinced him to walk to the ambulance. The officers no longer needed to force him to get help.
Police encounters with people in crisis
Since 2020, Cook County received more than 1,000 calls for suicidal subjects and more than 1,300 well-being checks, according to a CBS News analysis of 911 data.
The risk of being killed while being approached or stopped by law enforcement is 16 times higher for individuals with untreated serious mental illness, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center report.
That scenario plays out across the country time and time again.
Deputies fatally shot a 15-year-old in Apple Valley, California, in March who was allegedly armed with a bladed gardening tool. Law enforcement previously visited the home on five separate occasions, each time taking the individual to a mental health facility.
New York City police officers fatally shot a 19-year-old man in front of his mother and brother in March during a mental health crisis. He reportedly ran toward officers with a pair of scissors.
These are just some of the examples that highlight the complex mental health crises police encounter on a daily basis across the country.
“Police are not the experts”
In some alternate programs, dispatchers have to screen 911 calls to ensure clinicians are not going into dangerous situations. Even then, the circumstances described by a 911 caller can be drastically different from the scenarios officers experience when they arrive.
A CBS News data analysis of CVAP calls since 2021 showed nearly 57% of co-responder calls were reassessed as a mental health issue and about 22% of calls involved substance use disorders.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said CVAP brings officers unlimited access to counselors in complex situations, where police are not the experts.
“When the 911 call comes in, you’re sending a police officer with police training to a house,” Dart said. “That’s fine if it’s a criminal case. The majority of calls everyone’s getting [are] mental health-based, and we’re sending the wrong person there.”
Ryan Beard/CBS News
The use of the co-responder program has grown, with 269 calls just last year, according to an analysis of sheriff’s office data.
It showed the most common reasons for using the co-responder program include domestic trouble, suicide attempts, and citizen assistance.
“If you were to talk to virtually anybody in law enforcement, what they will tell you is that the calls that they have, whether there’s a domestic issue, mental health related issue, it’s not the first time they’ve been to that house,” Dart said. “They go to these houses over and over and over again.”
“We need somebody there that’s properly trained to de-escalate”
Emily Dahl, a single mom diagnosed with bipolar disorder, has had multiple run-ins with police. Her family has had to call officers to her home during manic episodes.
She recalled one time when she barricaded herself in the bathroom.
“I actually ended up biting a police officer because I was in the shower,” Dahl said. “The police had been at the house for over an hour trying to get me to go to the hospital, and I was terrified.”
It wouldn’t be the last time things got physical with police. Dahl said in one instance when she locked herself in a room with her son, officers had to rip off the door.
“They were concerned about my son’s safety,” she said.
Ryan Beard/CBS News
Officers could not bring in counselors virtually in those instances, but Dahl believes it would be helpful to have one there.
“When you’re in fight or flight, you can’t reason with somebody in that state,” she said. “So, I think that’s really where we need help with clinicians. We need somebody there that’s properly trained to de-escalate.”
Finding qualified mental health professionals has become a challenge since the pandemic. About 49% of Americans live in an area facing a mental health workforce shortage, according to the National Institute for Health Care Management.
Tim Horstman/CBS News
Sheriff: This program could work anywhere
Dart’s office said with just 12 employees, CVAP covers 31 suburban police departments, with plans to add eight more departments this year. The program serves about 791,000 residents at a cost of $1.2 million a year, according figures provided by the Cook County Sheriff’s office.
Their data shows an in-person model, requiring more than 130 staffers, would only serve a fraction of the population and cost an estimated $12.9 million a year.
Tim Horstman/CBS News
“We can’t predict mental health emergencies,” said Montgomery of the Treatment Response Team. “So why would I put a salaried employee in a car that might not be able to work with anyone for eight hours or 10 hours?”
Montgomery said the co-responder model gives the best of both worlds, with an officer providing safety and the clinician providing mental health support.
Sheriff Dart said he cannot think of a place where this program will not work.
“For me, success is that we’re getting the right services to the right people right away, not theoretically down the road, but right now,” he said.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.
For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.
Legislation to expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday and is now headed to the desk of President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
Senators voted 76-20 for the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate two federal policies that prevent nearly 3 million people, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and others with a public pension, from collecting their full Social Security benefits. The legislation has been decades in the making, as the Senate held its first hearings into the policies in 2003.
“The Senate finally corrects a 50-year mistake,” proclaimed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, after senators approved the legislation at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.
The bill’s passage is “a monumental victory for millions of public service workers who have been denied the full benefits they’ve rightfully earned,” said Shannon Benton, executive director for the Senior Citizens League, which advocates for retirees and which has long pushed for the expansion of Social Security benefits. “This legislation finally restores fairness to the system and ensures the hard work of teachers, first responders and countless public employees is truly recognized.”
The vote came down to the wire, as the Senate looked to wrap up its current session. Senators rejected four amendments and a budgetary point of order late Friday night that would have derailed the measure, given the small window of time left to pass it.
Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio was among the 24 Republican senators to join 49 Democrats to advance the measure in an initial procedural vote that took place Wednesday.
“Social Security is a bedrock of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire,” Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his seat in the November election, told the chamber ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “All these workers are asking for is for what they earned.”
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — that reduce Social Security payments to nearly 3 million retirees.
That includes those who also collect pensions from state and federal jobs that aren’t covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and family members. The WEP impacts about 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO nearly 800,000 retirees.
The measure, which passed the House in November, had 62 cosponsors when it was introduced in the Senate last year. Yet the bill’s bipartisan support eroded in recent days, with some Republican lawmakers voicing doubts due to its cost. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would add a projected $195 billion to federal deficits over a decade.
Without Senate approval, the bill’s fate would have ended with the current session of Congress and would have needed to be re-introduced in the next Congress.
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Saturday is the winter solstice and 2024’s shortest day. Here’s what to know about the official start of winter.
The 2024 winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, happens on Saturday, Dec. 21, in the Northern Hemisphere. The celestial event signifies the first day of winter, astronomically.
What is the winter solstice?
The winter solstice is the day each year that has the shortest period of daylight between sunrise and sunset, and therefore the longest night. It happens when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn, a line of latitude that circles the globe south of the equator, the National Weather Service explains.
The farther north you are, the shorter the day will be, and in the Arctic Circle, the sun won’t rise at all.
How is the day of the winter solstice determined?
The winter solstice occurs because of the Earth’s tilt as it rotates around the sun.
When the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun, the nights last longer. The longest night happens on the solstice because the hemisphere is in its furthest position from the sun. That occurs each year on Dec. 21 or 22.
This year, it falls on Dec. 21 at 4:21 a.m ET, to be precise.
On the summer solstice, when the northern tilt is closest to the sun, we have the longest day, usually June 20 or 21.
National Weather Service
The solstices are not always exactly on the 21st every year because the earth’s rotation around the sun is 365.25 days, instead of 365 even.
Will days start getting longer after the winter solstice?
Yes. Each day after the solstice, we get one minute more of sunlight. It doesn’t sound like much, but after just two months, or around 60 days, we’ll be seeing about an hour more of sunlight.
When will winter officially be over in 2025?
The meteorological winter ends on March 20, 2025. Then, spring will last until June 20, when the summer solstice arrives.
How is the winter solstice celebrated around the world?
Nations and cultures around the world have celebrated the solstice since ancient times with varying rituals and traditions. The influence of those solstice traditions can still be seen in our celebrations of holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, Britannica notes.
The ancient Roman Saturnalia festival celebrated the end of the planting season and has close ties with modern-day Christmas. It honored Saturn, the god of harvest and farming. The multiple-day affair had lots of food, games and celebrations. Presents were given to children and the poor, and slaves were allowed to stop working.
Gatherings are held every year at Stonehenge, a monumental circle of massive stones in England that dates back about 5,000 years. The origins of Stonehenge are shrouded in mystery, but it was built to align with the sun on solstice days.
Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images
The Hopi, a Native American tribe in the northern Arizona area, celebrate the winter solstice with dancing, purification and sometimes gift-giving. A sacred ritual known as the Soyal Ceremony marks the annual milestone.
In Peru, people honor the return of the sun god on the winter solstice. The ancient tradition would be to hold sacrificial ceremonies, but today, people hold mock sacrifices to celebrate. Because Peru is in the Southern Hemisphere, their winter solstice happens in June, when the Northern Hemisphere is marking its summer solstice.
Scandinavia celebrates St. Lucia’s Day, a festival of lights.
The “arrival of winter,” or Dong Zhi, is a Chinese festival where family gathers to celebrate the year so far. Traditional foods include tang yuan, sweet rice balls with a black sesame filling. It’s believed to have its origins in post-harvest celebrations.
Researchers stationed in in Antarctica even have their own traditions, which may include an icy plunge into the polar waters. They celebrate “midwinter” with festive meals, movies and sometimes homemade gifts.