ORANGE COUNTY, FL – It’s a first for Central Florida: 911 dispatchers can now help when someone in a mental health crisis calls for help.
In ZIP code 3285, part of what the Orange County Sheriff’s Office calls “Sector 2,” located in the northeast corner, more people call with mental health concerns than anywhere else in the county.
Usually, the response to every 911 call is the same: police, fire or medical — but not anymore in Orange County.
Jennifer Falco is the first clinician at the county’s 911 communications center. This is a big deal.
“Yes, this is a big deal for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office,” Falco said.
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Falco is a licensed mental health counselor who speaks and listens to the growing number of 911 callers struggling with their mental health.
“What I do here is I work among the callers, and at times when they think it’s more appropriate for someone who is familiar with mental health, they transfer the call to me,” Falco tells 911 callers .
When a call comes into the 911 dispatch center, dispatchers respond, and if they determine there is a mental health issue but it’s not an emergency, they will transfer the call to Falco.
Falco said most of the callers who end up on the line with her never expected to be connected to a mental health professional. And she may be the first they’ve spoken to in a while—or ever.
Falco said it was an honor.
“Because people share things with me that they wouldn’t otherwise share with others,” Falco said. “And they are vulnerable. They talk to me when they are going through a crisis. And it’s never fun to talk about it with people. I am in a very unique position. I can catch them in the present moment when they are going through this crisis situation.
Falco has three options when talking to the caller. She could send the Behavioral Response Unit, a deputy/clinician or a team of associates first introduced to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in 2021.
She can refer the caller to mental health resources throughout the county that she is familiar with.
Or Falco said he could just listen.
“It occurs when the person is not quite ready to access the resources,” Falco said.
In her first month at the communications center alone, Falco has spoken to 31 people who called 911 for help.
“I 100 percent feel like I’m getting results,” Falco said. “I feel like I’m really helping people here.”
For most of those 31 calls to 911, Falco did not send a deputy.
Sergeant Jason Gorberg, who commands the Behavioral Response Unit and was responsible for integrating Falco into the communications center over the past year, said everyone benefits when a deputy doesn’t have to answer a 911 call.
“Doing this saves us resources, allows deputies to respond to more ongoing calls for service,” Gorberg said. “It also allows the citizens of Orange County to recognize that we are focusing on more ongoing calls of concern from citizens.”
And reducing mental health anxiety over the phone is one less in-person meeting that can go wrong.
“Absolutely, being able to have a phone conversation with someone who might be in crisis or just need resources or for that day, it definitely reduces the number of potential violent encounters with the citizens of Orange County,” Gorberg said.
Falco is currently only open during the day. There is no doctor on duty at night and dispatchers are sending deputies as usual. The sheriff wants to hire a second, even a third clinician so that all shifts are covered by a mental health professional.
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