Dane County updates crisis response: CARES Sun Prairie pilot, co-responder data and state rules for crisis care facilities

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…