"The Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) program began as a pilot in 2021 and pairs a mental health clinician with a police officer to "allow for a more comprehensive response that is designed to provide the best possible resolution for the client," according to city staff. The police department was the first agency in the county to take up the idea, and during the pilot the team responded to more than 350 calls for service and diverted 110 people to social services instead of involuntary hospitalization."
""The PERT program is unique among the various mental health response models; the pairing of a police officer with a licensed clinician, with all their diverse training and experience brought together to every call, allows them to provide service to clients in the most comprehensive and compassionate way possible," city staff wrote in a report to the City Council."
""After our original assigned clinician left the county's employ, (Palo Alto Police Department) continued to staff and deploy a PERT-trained officer to mental health related calls for service as we waited for another clinician to be assigned to us," Assistant Police Chief James Reifschneider said in an email."
Palo Alto restored a clinician to the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) to join officers responding to acute mental-health calls after more than two years without one. The PERT pairs a licensed mental-health clinician with a police officer to provide comprehensive, compassionate responses; during a 2021 pilot the team handled over 350 calls and diverted 110 people to social services instead of involuntary hospitalization. The City Council funded the program as ongoing and added a full-time officer, while the county struggled to hire or fund a clinician. Palo Alto will fund a clinician position for five years using Stanford University Medical Center funds.
Read at San Jose Spotlight
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