Featured image: Brandon Johnson at a mayoral campaign rally in March 2023. Archival photo. Photo: Jacobwaller; source crop by TenFordWest (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Chicago’s CARE teams now have more time to reach people in crisis. The city’s public health response operates from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, making a clinician and emergency medical technician available for eligible mental health calls into the evening.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Department of Public Health announced the second shift October 2. Staff began orientation October 5, with the new evening team’s responses to eligible 911 calls scheduled to begin October 12.
The longer hours followed CARE’s expansion across Chicago in May. The October announcement described eight teams and dedicated capacity for non-emergency responses, extending a program that had previously served a smaller set of police districts.
CARE stands for Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement. Its teams offer de-escalation, mental health assessments and connections to services, and can provide transport to community destinations when appropriate; CDPH also describes follow-up after those connections.
That expansion is also an organizing story. In an October 26 account for the American Friends Service Committee, Chi Peace Program Director asia smith described citywide coverage and longer hours as wins for the Treatment Not Trauma campaign.
Smith said AFSC’s role includes political education about accessing care, while campaign members canvass neighborhoods, collect accounts of the service and work toward further funding. The campaign’s work continues after the vans arrive- people still need to know how to request them.
The current CDPH program page says residents can call 911 and ask for CARE during its operating hours, but dispatch depends on screening and eligibility. A request does not guarantee that a CARE team will be sent.
CDPH’s criteria exclude calls involving weapons, violent behavior, active substance use or overdose, a medical issue, an active suicide plan or completed attempt, or an active threat. For non-crisis support, the department lists CAREProgram@cityofchicago.org and says to allow up to 72 hours for a response.
The next expansion is still a budget proposal. Johnson’s October 21 plan for 2027 calls for CARE to operate seven days a week and for another city-run mental health clinic to open.
WBEZ reported that Johnson proposed $5 million to establish permanent city funding for CARE as federal pandemic funding expires. His administration has already reopened public mental health clinics in Pilsen and Roseland.
WBEZ’s October 21 reporting also identified a funding obstacle: Johnson wanted to use social media tax revenue, which was being held in escrow during litigation. The proposal’s funding and additional clinic are separate from the citywide coverage and evening hours already in place.
Treatment Not Trauma organizers want coverage to reach every hour of the week. Smith’s October account identifies 24/7 response and reopening all public mental health centers as further goals, leaving a concrete next demand after the expansion already won.
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