Dane County staff on Monday summarized recent changes and data for the county’s behavioral-health crisis response system, including an early report on the CARES mobile-response pilot in Sun Prairie, staffing and data improvements for mobile crisis teams, the county sheriff’s co-responder (mental health deputy) model, and state action to license regional crisis care facilities.

The update, presented by Todd Campbell, Behavioral Health Division Administrator for Dane County Human Services, and Carrie Simon, the county’s urgent care manager, said CARES began responding in Sun Prairie in early February; through June 24 the program recorded 28 responses in the city, 20 of them to private residences and four that resulted in transport to another location. “Twenty percent of CARES calls could be resolved over the phone,” Carrie Simon told the joint Public Protection & Justice and Health & Human Needs committees, noting the county and partner agencies are developing a public dashboard showing call volumes, outcomes and on-scene resolution rates.

Why this matters: County leaders said the CARES expansion and related work aim to reduce unnecessary law-enforcement involvement, avoid emergency-department transports when safe alternatives exist, and strengthen follow-up care after crises. Paul Simon of MOSES, the justice-reform coalition, urged that crisis response be paired with reforms that reduce jail use, saying, “it is as or more important to implement reforms that will keep people out of the criminal legal system and out of the jail.”

Key updates and data

- Sun Prairie pilot: CARES began in early February; through June 24 there were 28 documented CARES responses in Sun Prairie, most to private homes and with few transports, county staff said. The county is subsidizing Sun Prairie’s participation under a one-year agreement and will reimburse roughly 70% of the city’s billed cost, staff said. The county did not provide a firm per-call dollar total during the meeting.

- Missed/“unmet need” calls: County staff said CARES has recorded 353 missed calls systemwide since February — about 2.5 missed calls per day on average — of which 88 occurred in Sun Prairie. Staff said missed calls tend to cluster on weekends and early-morning hours when fewer CARES units are available.

- Public dashboard and evaluation: The city of Madison is building a public dashboard to display CARES call volume, outcomes, transports and related measures; an independent evaluation by Harvard’s Government Performance Lab is also underway but not yet released. Committee members asked that the county be notified when those materials are published.

Co-responder model and sheriff’s office data

Lieutenant Chris Moore and Deputy Leslie Fox of the Dane County Sheriff’s Office described the sheriff’s co-responder or mental-health deputy program, which started in October 2022. The sheriff’s office has four mental-health deputies embedded at precincts across the county and collaborates with crisis clinicians for many responses. “We are checking in with people, home visits, speaking with people on the phone…building that rapport and identifying any ongoing issues,” Deputy Fox said.

Fox added that co-responder activity is concentrated Monday–Friday during daytime and early-afternoon hours, not overnight or on weekends. The sheriff’s office and Journey, the county’s crisis contractor, are working to use virtual-assessment tablets to reduce transports when embedded staff are not available; county staff said 44 tablets were purchased through a law-enforcement virtual-assessment grant. Sarah Henriksen of Journey said “only 2 percent of CARES calls end with the patient in police custody,” and most of those involve protective custody for emergency detention rather than arrest.

Grants, staffing and system recommendations

County staff said Journey’s mobile crisis program is now fully staffed with 24/7 capability after wage increases and that staffing gains make the county eligible for enhanced Medicaid reimbursement for some mobile-response and follow-up services. Staff summarized two recent grant efforts: a state-funded “988 improvement” grant to strengthen handoffs among 988, 911 and local crisis hotlines and to start peer-support follow-up services; and a law-enforcement virtual-assessment grant that funded equipment, planning and the tablets used for remote clinical assessments.

The county also reviewed a prior outside review by Centerstone, which recommended a streamlined countywide mobile-crisis strategy, centralized follow-up teams, improved and standardized data collection, technology to support referrals and crisis plans, and a phased implementation with neutral facilitation.

State licensing and regional crisis care facilities

Campbell briefed the committees on state action to create licensing for regional crisis care facilities. He said the state published an emergency rule defining licensing and that the biennial state budget includes $10 million in grants to support development of two regional facilities. The state’s initial certification priorities include siting a facility in the western region and prioritizing locations at least about 100 miles from Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh, Campbell said. County staff cautioned that a Medicaid billing pathway — not yet established for these new facilities — will be critical to long-term financial sustainability.

Concerns, next steps and outstanding gaps

Committee members repeatedly asked for clearer, public-facing measures and the GPL independent evaluation once it is released. Supervisors asked about CARES scheduling (why some hours have no teams), and staff said schedule decisions were data-driven and that daytime hours proved busiest. Staff also emphasized that the county’s fiscal outlook could constrain further expansion and that several policy and technical pieces (Medicaid coverage for new facility types, data sharing platforms, and consistent performance metrics across providers) remain unresolved.

Ending: Several supervisors praised the teams and urged continued collaboration. The committees adjourned after routine motions to adjourn were made and approved without recorded objection.