News Flash

The city has hired Kristin Ryan as director of the new Behavioral Evaluation and Response (BEAR) Team, a pilot program that offers an alternative response to non-violent mental health calls made to law enforcement and other first responders. 

The program is funded by $700,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding and is the result of a study that evaluated the adoption of a new protocol for responding to 911 calls related to mental health crises. 

The city collaborated with RTI International, a nonprofit research institute to analyze 911 call data and develop recommendations for improving responses to mental health calls for service. Advocates said that a different way of responding would save money and reduce instances of citation, arrest, use of force and incarceration. 

Staff for the BEAR Team should be in place and ready to respond to calls by April, said Assistant City Manager Patrice Toney.

Ryan was most recently the director of behavioral health services in Pinellas Park, Fla., where she developed a community-based intervention team that worked successfully for the last five years. She has 20 years of experience in working with people who have both mental health and substance abuse disorders. 

In Winston-Salem she will lead a team of crisis counselors who will be stationed at fire departments around the city with a high volume of mental health calls. 

Ryan said the team will be available on nights and weekends, which should help reduce emergency room visits, involuntary psychiatric commitments and arrests.

“I am very excited to have the opportunity to develop the BEAR Team in Winston-Salem,” she said. “I have experienced firsthand how providing the right level of care at the right time can improve the outcomes for individuals, as well as provide support for the entire system of care.”