After a year of operating in Chapel Hill, the Crisis Assistance, Response, and Engagement (CARE) team is now expanding to include Carrboro as well. The crew is hiring another social worker and adding staff for a second mobile unit, which will also allow for longer operating hours.
The CARE team, which is a partnership between Orange County and the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, is designed to respond to 911 calls that are outside the purview of law enforcement. It aims to address behavioral health crises in a holistic way, and includes a crisis counselor, an emergency medical technician, and a peer support specialist who has personally experienced challenges that vulnerable community members often face. This type of response is generally more beneficial to those in need, and also helps alleviate some of the strain on police departments.
“I’m so glad that this program is now available in Carrboro,” Carrboro Police Chief Chris Atack said in a town release about the expansion. “The CARE Team will allow people in crisis or challenging circumstances to quickly access real-time care and meaningful assistance.”
Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee said people generally call the police as a default even though officers aren’t as well-equipped to handle certain issues, such as those involving mental illness and substance abuse.
“I love that the CARE team would be the one to respond to that call and get the individual where they should be and divert them away from law enforcement,” she told 97.9 The Hill. “Because we know that law enforcement gets called for a lot of things that are not law enforcement, but then it’s like, ‘Well, who are we going to call?’”
She said that when police are tasked with handling issues outside their expertise, it can often lead to confusion and harmful results.
“They got to figure out, where do people go? Folks might end up in jail before they get the help that they actually need,” Foushee said.
The implementation of the CARE team was originally a recommendation of Carrboro’s Community Safety Task Force, which was established in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, to develop different approaches to public safety beyond policing. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services allocated nearly $800,000 to support this expansion of the CARE team, which is an increase of more than $200,000 from the funding for the team’s pilot year in 2024.
Chapel Hill Police Chief Celisa Lehew said the CARE team logged 1,040 responses in its first year.
“This continues to be an incredible team effort with Orange County, and we’re excited to collaborate with the Town of Carrboro to support even more community members,” she said.
Foushee said she is proud that the CARE team is coming to Carrboro, and she pledged to continue providing such resources for residents who need them.
“This is just a really great program, and we’re just really committed to a wide range of support for people struggling,” she said. “So we’re really excited to have that in the community. It’s just good to see it come to fruition.”
As of now, the CARE team is available in Chapel Hill and Carrboro during weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can contact the team by calling 911 or Orange County’s non-emergency number, (919) 732-5063.
Featured photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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