Philadelphia Fire Department Creates New Response Unit For Physical & Behavioral Health Crisis

The Philadelphia Fire Department created the new AR-3 response unit to serve physical and behavioral health crises. The unit is a partnership between the Fire Department, Managing Director’s Office, and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS). Crisis intervention training was provided in collaboration with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

AR-3 is the newest program in the Fire Department’s Mobile Integrated Health initiative. It builds on the success of two other alternative EMS response units: AR-1, which responds to low-acuity medical incidents around the University of Pennsylvania campus in West . . .