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Cops ARE Mental Health Workers

Cops ARE Mental Health Workers

The idea for Co-responder Consulting hatched in 2015 when I was developing and managing Boulder County's Project EDGE, and I first began to see an opportunity to change the world. Since the beginning of the project, I had a not-so-hidden agenda: by role-modeling quality mental health intervention--right there, on-scene, in front of police officers--I hoped that EDGE staff could change the way officers felt about working with mental health issues in their communities. Once I s

Building It While We’re Flying It: Challenges in Building and Running a Co-responder Program

Building It While We’re Flying It: Challenges in Building and Running a Co-responder Program

Most of us are on new ground here. Some co-responder programs have been around for a long time, but each community’s needs are unique. Each will have its own local requirements, and will need to develop its own policies and procedures. Rural areas will have different issues than urban areas; they will work with geographical size problems, issues finding qualified staff, and will have fewer level-of-care options. Urban areas will wrestle with call volume, clinical team siz

It's Not Just the Money

It's Not Just the Money

At one point with Project EDGE, I was asked to develop and present a TED-style talk on the EDGE program. I wanted to run my ideas past the boots-on-the-ground EDGE staff; I felt that it was critical to get the ground truth across in this talk. We went around the circle a few times, and there was a lot of brilliant observation. But there was one point that the team agreed was the main takeaway: our streets are less tense. It’s true that law enforcement and mental health coll