Missouri has invested multimillion dollars in a statewide mobile crisis response network to address the state’s growing mental and behavioral health crisis. In 2024, Missouri ranked 38th nationwide in prevalence of mental illness and overall access to treatment. Through the rollout of 20 behavioral health centers in a mobile crisis response network alongside the national 988 crisis hotline, the state now dispatches teams of social workers and other behavioral health specialists to people experiencing crises at no cost.
For fiscal years 2025 and 2026, Missouri set aside approximately $15 million annually to staff and fund mobile crisis teams. This investment allowed behavioral health providers to hire full-time staff and create dedicated mobile teams rather than relying on on-call workers. In 2024, the 988 hotline in Missouri answered nearly 85,000 calls, 20,500 texts, and nearly 8,800 chats. Of those contacts, about 3,000—or just over 2.7%—resulted in a mobile crisis team being dispatched. So far in 2025, 3.08% of contacts result in mobile team dispatch.
When individuals call 988 and need more support than a phone conversation provides, trained behavioral health professionals respond without law enforcement present. Providers meet people at home or public locations like libraries or parking lots, then offer follow-up check-ins and connect them with short- or long-term care, or other assistance such as Medicaid applications. However, rural challenges persist, including cultural hesitancy about inviting strangers into homes and limited internet access for seeking resources.
Results indicate the model is working. According to Macon County EMS Director Chris Bogguss: “If we go back and look at repeat patients, a lot of those have significantly decreased because they are getting the follow-up they need. They were given the appropriate resources.” Missouri is also incentivizing emergency responders to receive crisis intervention training. Burrell Behavioral Health has embedded a crisis hotline specialist in the Springfield-Greene County 911 dispatch center to divert callers to mobile crisis teams when appropriate.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.yahoo.com/news/does-missouri-investment-behavioral-health-120051019.html