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Gloria is the mayor of San Diego and lives in Mission Hills. Fletcher is chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and lives in City Heights.

Not all emergencies are alike.

Police officers respond to crimes. Firefighters respond to fires. Paramedics respond to physical medical emergencies. But if you or a loved one were having a mental health emergency, dialing 911 would dispatch law enforcement, not trained mental health clinicians.

This is going to change in the city of San Diego and across San Diego County.

Starting this month, county-funded Mobile Crisis Response Teams composed of a mental health clinician, a case manager and a trained peer support specialist will be activated. Members of these teams are trained crisis interventionists. They arrive on-site, evaluate the condition of those in crisis, and link them to the best place to get the trauma-informed behavioral health and supportive services they need…