WORT 89.9FM Madison · Madison C.A.R.E.S. Program One Year In

In most places in the United States, if you call 911 and say that someone’s having a heart attack, a trained Emergency Medical Technician team soon arrives.  If, on the other hand, you say someone’s having a mental health episode, a police squad, with no particular mental health training, arrives instead.  That was true in Madison, too until September of 2021, when the Madison Fire Department and Madison/Dane County Public Health launched the Community Alternative Response for Emergency Services, or C.A.R.E.S. program.  The program came in the wake of several high-profile police shooting incidents, all of which involved victims in a state of mental or emotional impairment.  On the occasion of its first anniversary, the C.A.R.E.S. program has issued its first annual report.  Ché Stedman is the Assistant Chief of Medical Affairs for the Madison Fire Department and heads up the C.A.R.E.S. program.  Stedman joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on November 28, 2022.

 

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