All of the region's major hospitals have combined forces in an unprecedented collaboration to improve the delivery of mental health care to the homeless and low income citizens, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Many of the 9,000 emergency detentions of psychiatric patients at San Antonio area hospital emergency rooms need any type of care at all, and the other require only psychiatric care.
So the hospitals will band together to make sure that emergency officers know exactly where to take these individuals when they call 9-1-1.
Police Chief Bill McManus says this is a real time killer for his officers.
"They pick somebody up on the street who is in mental crisis, they have to find that facility themselves," McManus said. "They may go to three or four places, and they don't have room or don't have the proper care."
The South Texas Regional Advisory Council has been working for months to bring together all of the cities, hospitals, philanthropic organizations, Haven for Hope, public safety, and mental health professionals.
"The number of people on the street that officers encounter every day amounts to more than 65,000 people in the last five years," McManus said.
The plan will not only get mentally ill people the help they need, but McManus said it will free up space in expensive Emergency Rooms, which will save taxpayer money, not to mention freeing up officers and Sheriff's Deputies to perform law enforcement work.