Outreach takes many forms, according to Michael Romero, a licensed psychiatric technician with the nonprofit, Be Well OC. Washing the swollen feet of a man who had spent days going barefoot and helping a distraught homeless person on the verge of a public breakdown track down a missing dog are just a couple of services he has offered as a member of Huntington Beach’s Mobile Crisis Response Team.
The team was created in August 2021 as a partnership between the nonprofit and the police department and is the first of its kind in Orange County, Romero said. It is made up of counselors and sworn officers who respond in plain clothes to both 911 calls involving mental health issues and requests for aid from a nonemergency line, (714) 960-8825. This is done at no cost to those in need of help.