Documents and interviews with former CARE staff reveal that CARE teams could often not be deployed to mental health emergencies because fire department paramedics who were part of the teams were unavailable. And Cleary said that if CARE does continue, the union will “one hundred percent” revive its fight to include fire department paramedics on the teams. When the fire department was removed from CARE, EMTs without the paramedic qualification—EMT-Bs—were hired in their stead. “This is really a question of medical care, and I know that the CARE team primarily goes to mental health emergencies,” said Snyder. He noted that New York City’s B-HEARD program includes union fire department paramedics.