Mobile units aren't just providing mental health care in rural areas. In July, New York City announced a plan to deploy "mobile trauma units" to crime scenes to provide support for friends and family members of victims as well as those who have witnessed violent crimes.
"When there's a shooting, we have the murals, the candlelight vigils, the solidarity walks," says City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, who helped spearhead the initiative. "But we also recognize that in the aftermath of burying a loved one, when the candles stop burning and the funeral is over, there's still a lot of trauma involved."
That's why the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, in partnership with the New York City Council, has allocated $1.8 million to outfit and staff five mobile units, one for each of the city's boroughs. Each 60-foot bus will bring antiviolence advocates, licensed psychologists and other certified mental health professionals to communities for one week following a violent crime. The administration will spend the remainder of 2018 assembling a team of professionals before launching the mobile units in January. —Zara Abrams
