Mount Vernon police social-work team diverts hundreds from jail and emergency rooms, connects clients to care

James Kammerer, supervisor of the Integrated Outreach Services team with the Mount Vernon Police Department, said the team's goal is to meet people where they are and provide alternatives to arrests and emergency-room care.

"We're an alternative response team connected with the police department and the 911 system," Kammerer said. "We're a team of social workers'...we can evaluate a call and self-dispatch ourselves to a situation. We can assist officers. Sometimes we can wave them off."

The program, launched in 2017 and expanded in 2022, sends two-person social-work teams and an advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP) to certain calls involving mental health, substance use or welfare checks. Kammerer said embedding social workers with police dispatch gives the teams situational awareness and a direct radio link for safety while allowing officers to remain available for criminal-intent incidents.

"It makes the officers feel a little safer," Kammerer said, noting that social workers carry radios and coordinate with officers on scene.

Program statistics cited on the show show that in 2025 IOS recorded 2,031 field contacts involving 265 distinct people; 81 people were diverted from the criminal justice system and 71 were placed on ongoing case management. Kammerer said "diverted" can mean helping someone meet court or probation obligations, presenting treatment plans to judges, or transporting people to crisis triage, detox or other services instead of booking into jail.

He described a theft case in which an officer asked whether alternatives to booking were available. Using an existing relationship with the person, Kammerer said he presented a treatment plan to the court with the defendant's lawyer and the person was released to treatment rather than remaining in custody.

An ARNP on the team, identified as Morgan, provides wound care, medications and in-field connections to primary care, Kammerer said. The podcast noted that an ambulance transport in Mount Vernon can cost about $1,200, and on-scene medical treatment or urgent-care referrals can avoid higher emergency-room charges.

Kammerer recounted crisis interventions to illustrate the team's role: a Riverwalk incident in which a man with a knife was calmed after social workers located his partner, confirmed she was safe and relayed that to him, and he put down the knife and was taken into custody; and a case in which staff removed a realistic-looking BB gun from a person of concern, later returning it to the store and using funds to help the client with rent as part of immediate safety planning.

The team also conducts intentional outreach'visiting camps, trails and river areas, and participating in community events such as a Halloween fair to build noncrisis relationships. Kammerer said that approach helps with long-term follow-up and recovery: he described a client who entered treatment after IOS intervention, later returned to report being sober and employed.

IOS works with community partners including the Day Center (a daytime resource and shelter), Recovery Cafe, Skagit First Step Center (a tiny-home program with 90-day stays and designated law-enforcement drop-off cabins), Riverbend urgent care, Evergreen Recovery and the county sheriff's crisis team to divert people from ERs and provide appropriate placements.

Kammerer said the team aims to reach six members at full strength'a supervisor, an ARNP, and two independent-response two-person teams'and hopes to expand coverage beyond standard weekday hours because crises occur at any time. The department also runs an internship program to train emerging social workers; several former interns later became employees.

He described a planned local facility called the Star Center, intended to add detox and withdrawal management, crisis triage and a 30-day co-occurring treatment program in the county so IOS can bring people to local intake rather than referring them to Bellingham.

The host thanked Kammerer for the work IOS provides in the community; Kammerer said the team's relationship-based, person-centered approach aims to reduce jail stays and costly emergency-care usage while helping people access long-term treatment and housing supports.

The episode closed with a signoff and social-media invitations from the show.