Have you noticed how lately, if you call a clinic or medical company, the automated message says, "If you are experiencing a medical emergency, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room"?
The spirit behind that message is to encourage people to get help as soon as they can, and not delay hoping that their outpatient provider will get back to them in a sufficiently safe amount of time.
Psychiatric emergencies are medical emergencies. Therefore, one immediate goal is to present for help as quickly as you can.
In many areas, an ambulance will respond to 911 calls for emergency psychiatric care. To help expand the number of teams that can respond, a trained mental health response team may also respond. For examples of these teams, here is a listing for Los Angeles County.
There is criticism and debate over using non-ambulance services to respond to calls for help with psychiatric emergencies. For some, sending non-ambulance emergency services is perceived as labelling their needs as less critical. However, defenders of this model argue that knowledge of mental health interventions and knowledge of how best to navigate local mental health care is not typically covered in-depth for standard ambulance crews.
As with most things, there are pros and cons to each type of response team. Your 911 operator will likely ask you questions about what you are struggling with to help determine what might be the best response team for you.
I have over the years occasionally gotten questions about why a patient with psychiatric needs would need a field response or transportation. "Why can't their family/friends just take them?"
To that I respond: If you're worried someone is having a heart attack or a stroke or terrible pneumonia, you wouldn't ask them to drive themselves. You'd probably be worried about them getting there safely. Psychiatric emergencies are medical emergencies. If a person needs care quickly, and transporting themselves is not a safe option, they should feel comfortable asking for help getting to care.
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