Morgan Hendricks, a nurse practitioner with the Mount Vernon Police Department's Integrated Outreach Services, described her background in emergency services and her aim to add health care to the department's social-services program.

Hendricks said she joined Skagit County Search and Rescue as a teenager, trained as an emergency medical technician at 18 and later volunteered with the Mount Vernon Fire Department. "When I was 15, I joined Skagit County Search and Rescue. And through that experience, I really got a feel for emergency services, their motto, so others may live," she said.

The nut graf: Hendricks said she returned to the Mount Vernon Fire Department in 2019 as a nurse to focus on community paramedicine and education, and that the police department's Integrated Outreach Services provided a chance to bring clinical care into a broader social-service effort. "The Mount Vernon Police Department had been putting together their integrated outreach services program, and it just it was the perfect melding. They have all the social services. I just wanna bring a little bit of the health care to it," she said.

Hendricks said the city helped her complete her nurse practitioner certification. "And while I was working for the fire department, the city was able to help me get through my nurse practitioner certification and degree," she said. She described offering CPR classes to high school students and to EMTs in the community as part of her outreach work.

On joining the police department, Hendricks said the move was a "totally natural progression" from prior work with hospitals and the fire department. She characterized the department's program as an ambitious, developing model: "Something really exciting about working for the Mount Vernon Police Department right now is we are being truly innovative. We are the only police department that is pursuing this depth of social work, of health care coverage for our people. We are building a system that doesn't exist," she said.

Hendricks did not provide a formal timeline or specific launch date for expanded services, saying only that "we're gonna get something happening soon." She also offered personal background about growing up in Hawaii, moving to Skagit Valley as a teenager and participating in outdoor family activities such as camping and hiking.

This was a presentation and description of a developing program rather than a formal decision or vote; no motions, budget allocations or implementation deadlines were announced during the remarks. Hendricks emphasized outreach and education roles, including community paramedicine and CPR training, and said the city supported her professional certification, but she did not identify specific funding sources, contracting steps or external approvals required for the program to operate at scale.