LEXINGTON, Ky. — Lexington is taking a new approach to respond to mental health emergencies.

What You Need To Know

  • The city of Lexington has established a new crisis response team

  • The team adds trained mental health support to their 911 calls

  • According to the Lexington Fire Department, last year they responded to nearly 70,000 calls, with 75% relating to medical reasons

  • Chris Perrine is a licensed professional counselor helping the city's first responders address mental health concerns

Mental health concerns are rarely expected, even during 911 calls. That’s where licensed professional counselor Christopher Perrine comes in. He’s now working alongside Lexington’s first responders and paramedicine teams.

“So the normal coping mechanisms and skills that they would initially use just aren’t working for the situation they’re in. And so my main role is to help de-escalate the situation and connect resources,” Perrine said. 

This year the city was one of seven that received a portion of nearly $850,000 in state funding from the department for medicaid services to either create or further develop a crisis response team.

“I feel like with the implementation of this program, that allows me to just be me, I don’t have to be anything that I’m not in, so I can just be human and talk to an individual like a human,” he said. 

Lexington Fire Department Captain Seth Lockard helped start the city’s paramedicine team several years ago. Adding to the mission, Lockard says they want to be able to provide help as soon as possible and provide other essential support within 72 hours of a crisis call.

“We’re starting four days a week. Four days is better than zero days. So we’re seizing it. And we looked at the data. We looked at our data to come up with the peak times,” Lockard explained. 

He also says lack of access to resources, treatment and other medical care can often create these situations. “It may be to them — it’s not a low acuity reason. It may be a simple barrier of getting to the primary care doctor, not having primary care, or not having access to medication,” Lockard said. 

For Perrine, it’s not just about being a professional, but a person who can help in critical situations.

“The values my parents instilled in me to always give back, this is my way of giving that back to them,” Perrine said.

Perrine knows his impact is limited right now, but he hopes that expanding the program will prove worthwhile.

“With 40 hours a week, there’s only so much that I can get done for the whole city, but I hope that the effectiveness of the program justifies the need for more.” He says that they are in the early stages. He will take on the official position toward the end of 2024.

Related Stories