TV’s “Dr. Drew” shines national spotlight on Dallas’s RIGHT Care Team

Dallas’s groundbreaking emergency response team – RIGHT Care – was featured on the season premiere of “Health Uncensored with Dr. Drew,” which aired nationally on Fox Business January 28.

During the episode, Meadows Institute President and CEO Andy Keller went one-on-one with host Dr. Drew Pinsky to discuss the Meadows Institute’s public safety alternative response program, with a specific focus on our multidisciplinary response team (MDRT) model, which is helping communities across Texas and the nation transition from a public safety-oriented to a health-centered approach in handling mental health emergency calls.

“When you have a medical emergency, you need someone who is going to be able to give you medical help,” Keller told Dr. Drew.

Dr. Drew shone the spotlight on Dallas’s RIGHT Care team, a partnership with Parkland Hospital, Dallas Fire and Rescue and the Dallas Police Department that is leading the way in prioritizing a health care response for mental health emergencies.

As chronicled in the Dallas Morning News and numerous other outlets, the RIGHT Care Unit has had many success stories, including helping a veteran access behavioral health care and Veteran Affairs service and connecting someone experiencing their first psychotic break to desperately needed treatment.

“It’s important that this work is implemented not just in Texas but everywhere,” said Dr. Drew.

Indeed, since the Institute helped launch it, the model has drawn substantial interest from other jurisdictions within Texas as well as communities across the nation, in states as wide-ranging as California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico, New York and Oklahoma.

To learn more about MDRT, visit https://mmhpi.org/tag/mdrt/.