VIDEO: Over the last few years there has been a sharp uptick of mental health and addiction-related calls for assistance in Springfield. But, the city hopes a new partnership will transform the way they respond to those calls.
Springfield Fire Chief Nick Zummo said he has seen the number of calls for service skyrocket. Many of those new calls aren’t about fires.
“In my first 20 years on the job, we went from about 15,000 to 18,000 calls. In the last five years, we’ve gone from 18,000 to 27,000. So that’s 9,000 in five years and a lot of them kind of fit this parameter of mental health opioids and that sort of thing,” Zummo said.
It has been a similar story for Springfield police as well. Those calls for addiction and mental health often put first responders in situations they aren’t trained for. So, the city has been strategizing ways to give first responders and the people they serve the resources they need.
