Marion County’s Board of Commissioners on Tuesday signaled support for staffing a county mental health worker to respond to Salem Fire Department calls downtown as part of a new crisis team.

But details of the city-county partnership, including how communication with law enforcement will work and what the new mental health specialist’s work schedule will look like, remain to be worked out before the program can launch. Officials have set a target date of Jan. 1.

The crisis response team was first proposed by Salem Fire Chief David Gerboth, who saw success from a similar program he oversaw during his tenure as assistant fire chief in San Diego.

The goal of the team, which will be overseen by the fire department, is to help divert 911 calls from people experiencing mental health crises an

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