Santa Clara County launches TRUST direct crisis hotline

After some trial and error, Santa Clara County just made it easier to request a non-police response for someone in mental health crisis.

Officials have rolled out a direct, 24/7 hotline to reach the Trusted Response Urgent Support Team (TRUST), a mental health crisis team that sends out vans across the county to de-escalate emergencies and provide resources and assistance to individuals and their family members.

Those in mental health crisis can now call the direct line at 408-596-7290 instead of 988.

“It’s great they’re finally doing the TRUST line, but it should have happened from the get-go,” Laurie Valdez, whose partner Antonio Guzman-Lopez was killed by San Jose State University police, told San José Spotlight.

TRUST is the brainchild of Silicon Valley families who envisioned, designed and fought for this service after losing loved ones to violent and fatal encounters with police. But the 2022 rollout had a rocky start.

County officials — overlooking families’ calls for a direct line — initially funneled calls for TRUST through the 988 suicide and crisis helpline, putting people through phone trees, forcing them to endure lengthy holds or rerouting callers who didn’t have a 408 area code. Advocates said they heard complaints from some people who were told to call the police and weren’t connected with TRUST at all.

Until the direct line went live, these snags were frustrating to families, knowing that time was critical when callers in crisis might not make rational choices. As disapproval swelled, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors agreed to create a direct line last December. By then TRUST had been operating since fall 2022.

To test the change and expediency, this news organization called the line twice and connected with an operator in about 30 seconds both times.

Advocates welcome the direct line, but said county officials could have avoided these issues if their ideas were accepted at the outset.

“We pushed for TRUST, we waited, things initially weren’t panning out and we had to fight for some changes,” Rosie Chavez, whose nephew Jacob Dominguez was shot and killed by San Jose police in 2017, told San José Spotlight. “We’re in the right direction now. Let’s just see how this plays out.”

Santa Clara County Supervisor Otto Lee shares in the relief.

“No more merging services or frustrating phone trees,” Lee told San José Spotlight. “This is a community-driven program, and TRUST will save lives in crisis situations without involving law enforcement, offering our neighbors faster, more reliable access to the help they need.”

Non-police intervention 

A recent report showed that in San Jose, county mental health teams responded to just 2% of nearly 60,000 911 calls in 2023 that officials found better suited for a non-police response. Even in those situations, police responded jointly. San Jose only started rerouting certain lower level calls to 988 in January, and police are still being dispatched because alternative response teams don’t have enough resources to meet demand.

The county’s direct line for TRUST could make inroads. But concerns remain for advocates. Valdez and Chavez said the county needs to advertise more clearly — in places including the side of the TRUST vans — that the teams are not police. Advocates at a board supervisors meeting on Nov. 5 also raised concerns that TRUST staff were being cross trained with Mobile Response and Stabilization Services, which they said could dilute their training to handle TRUST-specific calls.

“I ask that you not sacrifice specialization for the sake of saving a few dollars,” Lori Katcher, an advocate with Showing Up for Racial Justice, said during the meeting.

Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, in response, requested more information from county officials on the specifics of TRUST employees’ training. She said she shares the concern about TRUST’s non-law enforcement marketing.

“I’m in strong agreement. This is the essence of TRUST and I think that has to be made absolutely prominent in anything we share,” Ellenberg said at the meeting.

A spokesperson for the county’s behavioral health department said it’s redesigning the TRUST flier to highlight the program’s non-law enforcement involvement for wide circulation once approved. The spokesperson said the TRUST program’s website already emphasizes the team’s non-law enforcement model.

“When people call the TRUST line, TRUST-trained staff will answer and respond appropriately,” the spokesperson told San José Spotlight when asked about the cross-training.
The TRUST Call Center has 13 full-time employees: one manager and 12 program staff. Three positions have been added in anticipation of the potential call volume increase resulting from the direct line, according to the county’s behavioral health department.

There are a total of four TRUST vans in operation and one being retrofitted.  The county works with two contractors. Pacific Clinics serves San Jose, the West Valley and South County with three mental health crisis team vans. Momentum for Health has one van serving North County. A van is being retrofitted to serve as an expansion in San Jose.

A department spokesperson said it’s difficult to project a potential increase in the volume of calls with the direct TRUST line since it doesn’t have any data to compare. From the most recent reporting period of March 2024 to August 2024, TRUST responded to 2,157 phone calls. The TRUST Call Center anticipates hiring three additional staff to support the potential increase of calls. The spokesperson said Pacific Clinics will continue to monitor the call volume and make adjustments in staffing as needed.

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.