By Councilmember Doria Robinson, Richmond City Council, District 3

Over the past several weeks, our Richmond community has experienced a heartbreaking series of violent and traumatic incidents.

A Richmond police officer was shot while responding to what seemed to be a mental health crisis. Thankfully, the officer survived. In another incident, a community member lost their life in an encounter with police. And in an almost unimaginable tragedy, four members of one Richmond family, including two young children, lost their lives in a house fire that authorities allege was intentionally set by another member of their family.

Each of these tragedies is different. Each has its own facts, circumstances, victims and grieving families. We should be careful not to make assumptions about anyone’s diagnosis or mental health when all of the facts are not yet known.

But taken together with other incidents our city has experienced, they demand that we ask a much bigger question:

Are we doing enough to identify and help people experiencing serious mental and behavioral health crises before those crises become tragedies?

I do not believe we are.

We Cannot Police Our Way Out of a Mental Health Crisis

Last year, our community mourned the death of 27-year-old Richmond resident Angel Montaño following an encounter with police during what was reported as a mental health crisis.

After Angel’s death, the Richmond City Council called for an assessment of the mental and behavioral health services available to Richmond residents. We needed to understand what services actually exist, who provides them, when they are available, where the gaps are, and what happens when someone needs immediate help.

That assessment is still critically important, and it needs to be completed.

At the same time, it is important to recognize that Richmond and Contra Costa County have been working to build alternatives to traditional police response for people experiencing behavioral health crises.

Richmond’s Community Crisis Response Program and ROCK—Reach Out with Compassion and Kindness provide a non-police response to appropriate nonviolent, non-medical behavioral health calls.

Contra Costa County’s A3 Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime behavioral health crisis response system is another critical part of the mental health network being built throughout our county. A3 is intended to provide people experiencing behavioral health crises with an appropriate behavioral health response and connect them with care.

In the recent Richmond incident in which a woman was firing shots from her home and a Richmond police officer was ultimately shot, the County’s A3 behavioral health crisis response team was the first to respond. When the situation escalated and became unsafe, law enforcement assistance was requested.

That sequence is important.

It demonstrates both the progress we are making and the enormous challenge we still face. We are beginning to build systems that send behavioral health professionals to behavioral health emergencies rather than automatically relying on police. But there will also be situations where a behavioral health crisis escalates into an immediate threat of violence and requires law enforcement intervention.

Our responsibility is to build a system strong enough to respond across that entire continuum.

A3, ROCK, police, fire, hospitals and community-based mental health providers should not operate as isolated pieces. Together, they must form a coordinated network of prevention, early intervention, crisis response, treatment and follow-up care.

And we need to understand where that network is working and where people are still falling through the cracks.

What Happens Before Someone Reaches the Breaking Point?

The recent incident also raises an even more fundamental question: What happens before someone reaches the point where a crisis response team has to be called?

When a Richmond resident or family realizes that someone they love is experiencing a serious mental health crisis, where do they go?

Can they get someone evaluated quickly?

Can they get treatment without waiting weeks or months?

Is there somewhere for a person to go voluntarily before they become a danger to themselves or others?

Are culturally competent services available in the languages Richmond families speak?

Are there enough psychiatrists, therapists, case managers, substance-use treatment providers, crisis stabilization beds, and long-term supportive services?

What happens after someone leaves an emergency room, psychiatric hold or crisis intervention? Who follows up with that person and their family?

And perhaps most importantly: Do Richmond residents even know what services are available and how to access them?

These are exactly the kinds of questions our behavioral health assessment needs to answer.

Mental health care is primarily provided through county, state, health care and nonprofit systems, so Richmond cannot solve this crisis by itself. But that does not mean the City should simply accept the gaps.

We need to identify them, document them and bring the responsible agencies and providers to the table to fix them

 

Having Services Is Not the Same as Having Access

There is another part of this crisis that we cannot ignore: the cost of care.

It is not enough for us to make a list of mental and behavioral health services available in Richmond and Contra Costa County. We have to ask whether Richmond residents can actually use them.

Mental health care can be expensive. Finding an available therapist, psychiatrist or other behavioral health professional can be difficult. Insurance coverage, deductibles, copayments, transportation, language barriers, waiting lists and shortages of providers can all stand between a person and the care they need.

For a working family already struggling to pay rent, buy groceries, keep the lights on and cover everyday expenses, paying regularly for therapy or other treatment may simply be beyond what their household budget can absorb.

And this is not just a mental health problem. Too many people struggle to afford basic physical health care as well.

People postpone seeing a doctor because they are worried about the bill. They put off dental care. They ration medications. They delay preventive care until a manageable health problem becomes an emergency.

Mental health care often gets pushed even further down the list.

That means we cannot measure our mental health system simply by asking, “Does this service exist?”

We have to ask:

Can people afford it?

Does it accept their insurance?

Can an uninsured person receive care?

Can someone get an appointment when they actually need one?

Are there free or low-cost options?

Can someone receive ongoing treatment after the immediate crisis has passed?

And does a family know where to call before the situation becomes an emergency?

If the answer to those questions is no, then for that family the service effectively does not exist.

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Prevention Is Public Safety

When we talk about public safety, we understandably talk about police staffing, fire protection, emergency response and crime prevention.

Mental health must be part of that conversation.

Preventing someone from reaching the point where they hurt themselves, a family member, a neighbor, a police officer or another community member is public safety.

Getting someone treatment before a 911 call becomes necessary is public safety.

Supporting families who are desperately trying to help a loved one in crisis is public safety.

Building systems like A3 and ROCK that can respond appropriately when someone is experiencing a behavioral health crisis is public safety.

And making sure police officers are not the first and only option available to families dealing with serious mental illness is also public safety.

This is not about blaming people experiencing mental illness for violence. The overwhelming majority of people living with mental health conditions are not violent. We should never stigmatize an entire group of people because of individual tragedies.

This is about recognizing something much simpler: when people experiencing serious behavioral health crises cannot get timely, appropriate care, the consequences can sometimes be devastating—for them, their families, first responders and the entire community.

 

Richmond Needs Answers and Action

I am calling for the behavioral and mental health services assessment requested by the City Council to be completed and brought before the Council and the public.

That assessment should include a clear picture of the entire behavioral health system serving Richmond from prevention and ongoing treatment to A3, ROCK, emergency departments, crisis stabilization, law enforcement response and longer-term care.

We need to know what resources Richmond residents currently have, where the gaps are, which agencies are responsible for filling them, and what additional investments or partnerships are necessary.

But I don’t want another report that simply sits on a shelf.

The assessment must lead to an action plan.

That means bringing together the City of Richmond, Contra Costa County Behavioral Health, A3, ROCK, health care providers, community-based organizations, schools, first responders, mental health professionals, families and—most importantly—people who have personally experienced our mental health system.

We should establish clear recommendations, responsibilities and timelines for closing the most dangerous gaps.

Because behind every one of these incidents are real people.

There are families grieving loved ones.

There is an officer and their family who experienced the terror of a behavioral health response turning into gunfire.

There are neighbors who witnessed unimaginable tragedy.

There are first responders and behavioral health workers carrying the weight of what they experienced.

And there are Richmond families right now who may be watching someone they love deteriorate and wondering where they can turn for help.

We cannot wait until their crisis becomes our next tragedy.

We cannot continue responding only after someone reaches their breaking point.

Richmond must treat mental and behavioral health as an essential part of our public safety infrastructure and we must work with Contra Costa County to make sure that A3, ROCK and the broader behavioral health system have the resources, coordination and capacity necessary to succeed.

We owe that to Angel.

We owe it to the people we have recently lost.

We owe it to the police officers, firefighters, dispatchers, A3 and ROCK crisis responders, health care workers and community organizations who are being asked to respond when these situations reach their most dangerous point.

And most of all, we owe it to the Richmond families who are asking for help before tragedy strikes.

The time to build a stronger mental health safety net in Richmond is not after the next crisis. The time is now.