Health Solutions told the City Council that its Solution Outreach Services (SOS) team has handled more than 1,000 nonviolent behavioral-health or welfare-check calls for the Pueblo Police Department and is planning to expand coverage.

Rochelle Brown, supervisor of outreach and engagement, told council the SOS team launched in September 2023 as an alternative response for dispatch calls that do not require a uniformed officer. "Basically, our goal was to answer calls, to service for the Pueblo Police Department for individuals in need of non urgent medical or behavioral health support," Brown said. She said the team consists of a clinician (master’s-level or licensed), EMS personnel (EMT or paramedic) and a peer specialist.

Brown said the program has responded to 1,064 calls with a single team operating three days a week and that roughly 60% of those calls were welfare checks. The presentation noted that the SOS contacts led to 197 people enrolling in Health Solutions’ services after the team’s intervention and that an additional 131 people were seen as part of those service calls.

Tim Miller, vice president of specialty services, said the program refers higher-level cases to CIT co-responders (clinician with an officer) and to NICE and mobile crisis services as appropriate. Brown and Miller said the team has access to police CAD data to self-dispatch to appropriate calls and that expanding to a second team would allow coverage up to six days per week, with timeline dependent on hiring staff.

Council members praised the program and asked questions about follow-up for clients, hours, funding and staffing. Health Solutions said one team is currently grant-funded, the goal is to bill Medicaid for appropriate services, and the grant supports the program through the end of the next fiscal year; the organization expects to hire for a second team when staffing and funding permit.