What's Happening in Billings, MT…

Officials in Billings are taking steps to ensure that the city’s firefighters are concentrating on fighting fires.

Firefighters tend to respond to all kinds of emergency situations. The leaders in Billings have been working closely with emergency responders for more than a year to create mobile crisis response teams that are tasked specifically with dealing with calls from people who are suffering some type of mental distress. The response teams will be managed by the Fire Department. Work like this is often publicized with help from flyer printing companies.

The goal is to have a crisis response team tasked with dealing with non-emergency calls. This will free up some of the fire department’s resources so that it can concentrate on responding swiftly to life-threatening situations. Last month, the city opened bidding for companies that would be able to create the new arm of the city’s crisis response teams. TruCare24, Substance Abuse Connect, and America First Response responded to the bid.

The city council voted in favor of enlisting services from Substance Abuse Connect. The company has been lobbying the city for a year to be in charge of its response teams and to provide licensed and trained personnel.

One councilmember, Jennifer Owen, was happy to see that the project was moving forward and stated that this latest development was a significant milestone. Talking to Billings Gazette, she spoke highly of the fire department’s efforts but pointed out that there were still many questions remaining about how to structure the program.