Sheriff Clarence F. Birkhead discusses the Durham HEART Program with Director Ryan Smith.  

HEART which stands for Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Teams was launched on June 27th, 2022.  The 3 crisis response pilots aim to connect people experiencing non-violent mental health crises or quality of life concerns with the right care by sending new responses that better match residents’ needs. A fourth pilot launched at the end of September 2022. Our goal with these pilot approaches is to connect our Durham neighbors to the right care — starting from the point at which someone calls 9-1-1, to the warm handoff to those prepared to help meet the needs of our neighbors in crisis.