ROCHESTER, N.Y. — After months of collecting data, Monroe County Executive Adam Bello released a report calling for changes to the way mental health and substance abuse treatment services are carried out in the county.

“We brought in community leaders from across the spectrum to make sure that all voices have been heard," Bello said. "That we engage with the community, we engagement with the mental healthcare community, with clinicians, with elected officials, with law enforcement.”

What You Need To Know

  • The report outlines short-term and long-term goals

  • There is a push to divert Mental Health calls to 211

  • County Executive Bello has appointed Dr. April Aycock as director of Monroe County's Office of Mental Health

  • They identify the need to strengthen the county's post-crisis support

Since its formation in September, the task force identified both short and long-term goals to help improve the county’s response to calls.

“First and foremost is to prevent someone from falling into that point of being in crisis, and when they need and seeking help, how do they reach the right system and how are those systems connected to prevent that crisis from happening in the first place,” Bello said.

The report highlights a gap in the system when it comes to law enforcement, Bello says it’s important that the right service responds to different situations. Instead of calling 911, people can call 211 for mental health or other concerns.

“So now for decades, 911 has been called and the police just keep getting tasked with more and more things. So we’re very excited about this, to get people help, we don’t want to go if we don’t have to go, so if there’s no reason for police to respond to something, we’re great not responding,” said Korey Brown, undersheriff for Monroe County said.

Brown said there will be training for officers to identify if situations should be handled my mental health professional. Officials at the press conference Thursday understand it will take time for everything to change.

“We did not get to this place overnight, and we’re not going to get back out of it overnight, but what we’re going to do is, we’re going to work together as a county to really address the needs of the people that need to be addressed,” Melanie Funchess, a member of the 90-Day Task Force Member & Mental Health Professional.

To help improve mental health services, County Executive Bello appointed Dr. April Aycock as the Director of Monroe County's Office of Mental Health.

“We have to look at it as a system issue and work with all of our providers and consistently hear from our community which is what we’ll continue to do,” said Dr. April Aycock.

The task force also highlighted the need for the county to strengthen post-crisis support to help prevent future incidents.