Tumwater approves contract with Olympic Health & Recovery for 24/7 mobile crisis outreach

The Tumwater City Council voted unanimously to authorize a service provider agreement with Olympic Health & Recovery Services to staff a city mobile outreach crisis team, a co-responder model that pairs a crisis clinician and a peer-support navigator with local first responders.

Fire Department leadership introduced the agreement and said the program follows 2023 state legislation enabling community-based crisis teams to operate alongside fire and EMS services. The city will host an Olympic Health and Recovery team, which will monitor dispatch, respond to behavioral-health calls and provide community outreach. Fire staff said the team will have 24-hour coverage and will be supported operationally through the fire department.

Joe Avalos, representing Olympic Health and Recovery Services, described the program as a regional effort with existing programs in surrounding jurisdictions. "We've been looking forward to this partnership... we're excited to be one of those and partnering with Tumwater," Avalos told the council. Timothy Lewis, the outreach program manager for Olympic Health and Recovery, also attended and answered technical questions.

Council members asked how the new team would coordinate with other local programs such as FD Cares and how the team would track individuals who move among jurisdictions. Olympic Health and Recovery responded that its information systems cover multiple counties and partner providers and that the team will coordinate with hospitals, ERs and neighboring jurisdictions to avoid duplicative responses.