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Senate approves bill creating certified behavioral emergency response technicians
Summary
The Utah Senate passed SB53 to authorize new behavioral emergency services certifications for EMS responders, aiming to expand crisis response statewide. Sponsors said the program supplements mobile crisis outreach teams; senators asked about licensure expansion, training scope and implementation logistics.
Senators on Monday passed SB53, a bill that creates two new certifications — behavioral emergency services technician and advanced behavioral emergency services technician — to expand the pool of responders trained to handle behavioral-health crises.
Sponsor Sen. Thatcher said the proposal will allow the state’s emergency medical services workforce to provide a tiered behavioral-health response statewide, supplementing existing mobile crisis outreach teams (MCOT) rather than replacing them. “This is one of the most important bills I’ve ever…
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