Co-Responder Project

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

The proposed program, the Boulder County Co-Responder Project, falls under the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Achievement Award category - Improve public safety systems, justice systems, community crime prevention, and crisis intervention. The project was launched in December 2019 with a grant from the State of Colorado’s Office of Behavioral Health, and pairs staff trained in clinical interventions and crisis de-escalation skills with police officers when responding to calls that include a behavioral health component. The project is designed to achieve multiple aims: • Assist officers and manage clinical or crisis-oriented issues on scene• Free-up officers to attend to the criminal aspects of a call• Help community members access needed behavioral health services • Provide light case management for more involved cases• Close cases more expeditiously and with a lower risk of repeat offense• Ensure that behavioral health issues do not lead to deeper involvement in the justice systemA project evaluation produced its first report of findings for the period Dec 2020 through Feb 2021. During this time there were 129 calls of which 50% required de-escalation, 29% received a behavioral health assessment, 42 individuals were enrolled in behavioral health services and 60 cases were referred for case management services.