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Livingston and Park County roll out mobile crisis response team and expand 988 linkage
Summary
The city and county are launching a co-responder mobile crisis team to provide immediate, trauma-informed in-person support for behavioral health calls and to route 988 callers to local response when needed; commissioners praised the expansion and staff said the team expects rapid-response capacity with telehealth backup.
City and county officials described a new mobile crisis response program intended to provide immediate, trauma-informed support to residents experiencing behavioral-health crises and to divert people from unnecessary hospitalization or arrest.
Kelly Miller, manager of the program (BRIDAL), said the model builds on an existing peer-support follow-up role and will add on-call crisis responders who can be dispatched with or without law enforcement. The team plans to use a telehealth partner for licensed clinical backup and has established dispatch protocols to prioritize 988-originated calls that require an in-person response.
"We provide immediate, compassionate, and trauma-informed support to individuals experiencing behavioral health crises," Miller said, outlining planned partnerships with the Livingston Police Department, Park County Sheriff's Office, EMS and local health and social-service organizations.
Miller said the program has state grant funding for a vehicle and training and that dispatch will coordinate so 988 calls that cannot be resolved by phone can receive a local responder. She described an anticipated target to reach callers in the first 30 minutes when an in-person response is necessary.
Commissioners praised the program as a long-awaited local resource. Commissioners and staff noted that most 988 calls are stabilized over the phone (nationally estimated at about 90 percent) but that the local response will catch the smaller proportion needing an in-person, non-law-enforcement approach.
The program is launching hiring for on-call responders and completing standard operating procedures and EMR/tracking systems; staff said they will update the commission as the team becomes operational and as metrics on call volumes and outcomes become available.
