Madison Reporter

Beginning Sept. 1 the City of Madison will be launching a new mental health and non-emergency service called Community Alternative Response Emergency Services (CARES). The service will serve as an alternative to calling the police. 

CARES will be overseen by the fire department and will operate from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in its beginning stage. At the announcement of the new service, city officials began welcoming the change. 

"This is a really exciting for our community. Glad to see this finally coming together, and props to the many advocates who have been working on this for many years. #publicsafety," tweeted Rep. Kelda Roys on Aug. 26. 

The new program will cost about half a million dollars every year but will alleviate the stress of citizens having to call the police after the recent backlash on law enforcement. 

"CARES is designed to serve as an additional available resource for behavioral health emergencies that occur in our community and ensure that medical and behavioral health care is integrated at the onset of crisis intervention," Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway tweeted on Aug. 26 as well. 

CARES teams will be comprised of Madison Fire Department paramedics and crisis workers from Journey Mental Health. Team members will arrive at calls in more casual uniforms and gray Chrysler Pacificas marked with the CARES logo. Additionally, the paramedics and crisis workers who will be representing the CARES service have completed 170 hours of training to better respond to the nature of mental health and nonemergency calls.