OUR MISSION

With 911 calls for mental health emergencies on the rise, many patients are left with insufficient access to quality crisis services. Law enforcement is often tasked with crisis intervention, and while many officers are provided with some specialized training, they must still respond to other types of emergency calls, not allowing the time that is necessary to provide high quality patient care. Community 911 ambulance squads are also dispatched to mental health emergencies, but the EMS providers employed at these agencies are typically under-equipped to be able to provide effective and/or appropriate care to those in an immediate mental health crisis.

Commonwealth Emergency Crisis Response (CECR) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization licensed as an EMS agency in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with a mission to provide a responsive, innovative, and comprehensive solution for the rapidly increasing demand for quality pre-hospital EMS care to individuals who are suffering from a mental health crisis or challenge. Our providers are given extensive mental health and crisis intervention training, and we respond as an EMS service to scenes where patients are suffering from mental health emergencies, and contact the appropriate local mental health agencies or authority to have them send a case worker or counselor to the scene with us. This approach broadens the available services to patients during their crises.