Mobile Crisis Intervention Team Saves & Changes Lives

Robert’s Story

Robert Morin said it was like being surrounded in a crowded bar with everyone telling him to kill himself.

“The voices I was hearing were non-stop and they kept telling me to do hurtful things,” said Robert, who suffers from schizophrenia. It was tiring. It was painful. It was frightening. And constantly being bombarded with threatening voices almost prompted Robert to take a large dose of painkillers during the summer to escape the torment.

Robert Morin

Instead, he called Riverbend Community Mental Health, where he was a patient. Riverbend immediately alerted its Mobile Crisis Intervention Team. The team brought Robert into a crisis apartment and housed him there on and off for three weeks until they were able to place him in longer-term housing in Concord.

“I was afraid if I didn’t get somewhere safe that I would act out on those voices and hurt myself,” said Robert, who is 49 and has lived in Concord on and off since he was 17.

The Crisis Intervention team also got Robert rides to outside treatment appointments and support groups while making sure he was connected with his behavioral health provider and that he was current with his medications.

The team’s clinicians and peer support specialists helped him confront his illness.

“They fed me, they kept me safe,” Robert said. “They gave me a list of 99 coping skills on how to deal with voices. Every day that I was there, one of the peer support specialists – someone like me who used to be sick – would go over the coping skills with me.”

His favorites: meditation and prayer.

Without the round-the-clock support, Robert said he probably would have hurt or killed himself. “They would gently ask me if I needed to talk,” he said. “I felt very comfortable going to them with my problem because they accepted me, they gave me hope.”

The Mobile Crisis team also worked to find transitional housing for Robert in Concord, where he is safe and being treated.

“I just want to say thank you,” he said. “The Mobile Crisis Center and peer support.