Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Mental Health topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Canvas Health reports mobile crisis and after‑hours emergency social services; 988 call patterns affect referrals
Summary
Canvas Health briefed the county on mobile mental‑health crisis and after‑hours emergency social services, reporting generally under‑two‑hour response times, a slight drop in locally routed mobile crisis calls amid a statewide surge in 988 volume, and increased reliance on grants as private‑insurance billing declined.
Canvas Health staff summarized two county contracts: a mobile mental‑health crisis response team that provides short‑term, face‑to‑face stabilization, and an after‑hours emergency social services program that triages child‑protection and adult‑maltreatment reports outside business hours.
Kelsey Yale, manager for crisis services, said the mobile crisis program focuses on short‑term stabilization and service connections — usually two to six weeks of follow-up — and that the team’s metrics show most community assessments begin within two hours of dispatch. She said calls and community responses were slightly down in 2025 compared with 2024, but that statewide 988 volume rose dramatically and that 988 call‑center triage behavior has reduced direct transfers to local mobile crisis teams.
“988 did a really good job of promoting themselves,” Yale said. She and other Canvas staff explained that 988 centers are incentivized to triage more calls by phone, which has limited transfers to local teams; counties and crisis teams are working at the state level to refine triage guidance.
Jake Bruce and Tom Rutder summarized funding patterns: grant funding for crisis services has increased while private insurance revenue has declined, and Canvas uses a mix of grant dollars and billing to offset program costs. Canvas also operates an emergency social services after‑hours contract (approximately 6,800 annual hours) to triage neglect/maltreatment reports; most after‑hours calls are routed between 4:30 p.m. and midnight.
Board members asked about staffing, turnover and coordination with coordinated responder programs and schools. Canvas acknowledged supervisor turnover in the mobile crisis program but said new supervisory hires are in place and that cross‑agency coordination with schools and coordinated responders remains active.
No board votes were recorded; the presentation was informational and identified state‑level triage guidance and funding patterns as matters for continued attention.
