INDIANAPOLIS — For more than a year, the city’s Clinician-Led Community Response team has been responding to people in crisis and connecting them to mental health resources — without police being involved.
The program is a partnership between the City of Indianapolis’ Office of Public Health and Safety and Stepping Stones Therapy Center. Currently, the CLCR program only operates in IMPD’s Downtown and East districts. So far this year, the team has received 925 calls and assisted nearly 650 people.
It’s why the city is now expanding its services to St. George Apartments on the near north side in December and IMPD’s North District in early 2025.
That means an additional 192,000 residents will have access to the CLCR’s services.
The city chose the north side because of the volume of calls for mental health help. When a 911 call comes in, a dispatcher will deploy the team to nonviolent mental health emergencies. All other calls are referred to IMPD or the Mobile Crisis Assistance Team (MCAT).
The CLCR team provides crisis intervention, de-escalation, referrals and transportation to community partners for further evaluation and intervention.