CSS 2021-04-19 Item 1C - Update - Regional Efforts Toward Mental Health Services

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Of the 1802 referrals to CCS for South King County residents in 2019, 78% (1411 of 1802) were assessed for potential detention. Of those numbers, 71% (or 1001) were involuntarily detained or voluntarily hospitalized. 21% of those referred to CCS (1,802 of 8,680) were individuals residing in South King County and another 27% (2,326 of 8,680) were missing address data. Among those referral's, 64% came from health care facilities, 21% from family and community members and 9% were from the criminal Justice system. Although this data reflects the number of South King County residents who were experiencing a mental health crisis in the community and needed evaluation to determine whether psychiatric hospitalization was necessary, the majority of the cases did not involve law enforcement. For those cases that did involve law enforcement, it is anticipated that had this mental health co - responder team been in place in South King County in 2019, the overall number of referrals to the CCS team could have been reduced. It is anticipated that the mental health co -responder team could have assisted some of these individual in avoiding either jail or psychiatric hospitalization. Explain the training approach to be implemented throughout the program for the law enforcement officers, call takers/dispatchers and behavioral health personnel to operate successfully and competently within your agency. The training approach will consist of the Program Supervisor partnering with supervisors from the involved law enforcement agencies, King County Behavioral Health and Recovery Division, the co - responder employer behavioral health agency, and Valley Communications Center to develop a comprehensive training plan and standard operating procedures to be presented to all personnel involved. Utilizing the data collection tool, Open Lattice, as described in the grant description, will be the best provider of possible resources for the individual experiencing the crisis in real-time. Utilizing this in response to calls, and following up with the shareable Crisis Template, will be tantamount in operation success and training within the Co -Responder Program. Describe the steps the program will take to transition diverted individuals from short-term services to more permanent community support services In discussions with regional Mental Health Professionals, on best practices — the following are the steps our Co -Responder program would take in diverting individuals in crisis from short-term to more permanent community support services. • The first and most pertinent step is de-escalation and reducing the immediate crisis. • The second primary goal it to assess the individual for short term needs, such as food and shelter. • The third goal is to connect clients to providers and resources that are best suited to their immediate and long term needs. • Creating the connections to the clients needing care often involves transporting clients to those long term providers, and making care plans in conjunction with support systems to minimize future 911 crisis needs. 41