The reality is you need a system of people. The suicide hotline should try and deescalate to the best of their ability, using actual human empathy, and police need funding for proper training to better understand mental health scenarios. In some places where it is viable, someone else can be dispatched maybe to specifically handle mental crisis, but I know in small areas using that funding on police would show better results than stretching the budget. Yes, nothing will beat proper resources and services, but you need to ensure you are helping people get to those resources and services instead of being left in the dark.