The use of mobile crisis teams (MCTs) is accelerating across the country. Between 2022 and 2023, there was a 19% increase in the number of MCT—from about 1,330 to 1,585. The MCT served more than 61,000 consumers in 2023, a 21% increase over the year previous (see State Mobile Crisis Teams).

But mobile crisis workers face challenges in making their role in the crisis system work. According to a new survey—Acting As The Face Of A Broken System: Challenges Experienced By Mobile Crisis Workers—they see operational and system-level challenges undermining both care quality and continuity. The most cited challenge was the structural nature of mobile crisis work itself (45%), followed by resource-related barriers (34%), workplace and workforce…