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Responding to Mental Health Crises in Rural Minnesota

Range Mental Health Center, Inc. Mobile Crisis Response Team

It’s challenging enough when someone who lives in a large city has a mental health crisis. For people in rural areas, it can be nearly impossible to get to care before a situation turns into a crisis. To address this challenge, Range Mental Health Center received a Medica Foundation grant to help build a Mobile Crisis Response team.

This team of mental health professionals goes to where the crisis is, responding to adults in one of the state’s most remote regions. They assess and stabilize situations to help people get the care they need. The program proved so effective that a children’s Mobile Crisis Response team is under development.

The Mobile Crisis Response Team operates in St. Louis County in northeastern Minnesota. Covering 7,092 square miles, the county is home to some 200,000 residents who live in the area’s small mining towns, farm communities and cities along Lake Superior’s north shore.

Almost 150 mobile crisis calls were handled during the grant period. The outcomes were significant.

• 60 clients went home with support services
• 47 clients received crisis stabilization services
• 72 percent of those served avoided hospitalization.

The Medica Foundation is proud to support the work of Range Mental Health Center. For more information go to rangementalhealth.org.