Barbara Dawson and Jennifer Battle present on the time-line of crisis center development and law enforcement and first responder integration, including a co-located partnership with 9-1-1.

1. First Responder Collaborations with our
Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Programs

2. Psychiatric
Emergency
Services PES at
the
(Neuropsychiatric
Center-NPC)
Mobile Crisis
Outreach Team
(MCOT)
MHMRA
Helpline
Crisis
Intervention
Response Team
(CIRT)
Critical Time
Intervention
(CTI)
Crisis
Stabilization
Unit
(CSU)
Crisis
Residential
Unit
(CRU)
Chronic
Consumer
Stabilization
Initiative
(CCSI)
PEER
Supports
CPEP Program Timeline
CIRT Expansion
to include Harris
County Sheriff’s
Office
Homeless
Outreach Team
(HOT)
20151986 1999 2002 2003 2008 2009
Projects for
Assistance in
Transition from
Homelessness
(PATH)
20041990
Harris
County
Psychiatric
Intervention
(HCPI)
Branard
Co-
Occuring
Disorders
(COD)
2011
Post
Hospitalization
(PHCRU)
&
911 HelpLine
Project
2013
Interim
Care
Clinic
(ICC)

3. Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES)

4. Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES)
Open 24 hours, 365 days per year for psychiatric crises and
emergencies:
• Consumers can be held up to 23 hours for observation
• Voluntary and involuntary admissions
• Walk ins accepted for all ages and must be in mental health crisis
• Assessment, medication and stabilization services
• Provides referrals and linkages with continued mental health treatment, both inpatient
and outpatient

5. Psychiatric Emergency
Services (PES)
4,311 4,828 5,510 5,695 6,343
8,705
6,742
9,075
8,768 8,124 6,528
3,755
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14
PES Visits by Admission Status
FY Total INV Admits FY Total VOL Admits

6. Psychiatric Emergency Services
(PES)
3,030
3,616
4,054
4,908 5,032 5,179
5,783 6,034342
256
325
457 476 539
560
608
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Law Enforcement
ADULT KIDS

7. Law Enforcement Collaborations
• Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT)
• Chronic Consumer Stabilization Initiative (CCSI)
• Homeless Outreach Team (HOT)
• 911 Crisis Call Diversion Program

8. Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT)

9. Crisis Intervention Response Team
(CIRT)
• Program partners a CIT officer or deputy with a licensed mental health clinician
from the Harris Center
• 10 Teams with Houston Police Department (HPD
• 10 Teams with Harris County Sheriff’s
Office (HCSO)
• Only program in Texas
• One of three programs
nationally

10. CIRT Overview
• Hours of Operation: 24/7 except major holidays
• Respond to calls involving the most serious mentally ill
individuals
• Conduct proactive and follow-up investigations on chronic
mentally ill individuals

11. CIRT Overview, cont.
• Respond to SWAT and Hostage Negotiation Team calls as a
resource for the scene commander
• Prisoner assessments at the city jails
• Transport involuntary individuals in crisis from local
MHMRA clinics to emergency psychiatric facilities

12. Chronic Consumer Stabilization Initiative
(CCSI)

13. Chronic Consumer Stabilization
Initiative (CCSI)
• CCSI is a collaborative effort between the
Houston Police Department and the Harris Center
• CCSI was designed to identify, engage and provide
services to individuals who have been diagnosed
with serious and persistent mental illness and who
have had frequent encounters with the Houston
Police Department

14. Chronic Consumer Stabilization
Initiative Overview
• Hours of Operation: M-F 8am-5pm (on call 24/7)
• Case Managers maintain case load size of 15
• Reduce the number of interactions for clients with serious mental illness with
the Houston Police Department
• Identify unmet needs and barriers in the community
• Link and coordinate clients with needed mental health treatment and
psychosocial services
• Reduce the number of crisis admissions to local hospitals and emergency
rooms

15. CCSI Successes
Since its inception the program has
• Decreased the number of interactions between CCSI clients and the Houston
Police Department by approximately 53%
• Decreased admissions to Psychiatric Emergency Service (PES) by 24%
• Decreased admissions to Harris County Psychiatric Center (HCPC) by 25%

16. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
2010- IACP Community Policing Award
2015- Michael Shanahan Award for Excellence and
Public/Private Cooperation
Finalist 2010- Herman Goldstein Award for
Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing
2011-2016 Simmons Foundation Grant
2013 -2014 Frees Foundation Grant

17. Homeless Outreach Team
(HOT)

18. The goal of HOT is to reduce the number of homeless persons by helping them
overcome the obstacles that have resulted in them living on the streets. The
team is relationship oriented and has established an excellent working
relationship with the homeless population, government agencies and the
provider community.
Homeless Outreach Team
(HOT)

19. • Partners case managers with HPD Officers on the streets of Houston,
working with homeless individuals.
• The Harris Center case managers work with homeless individuals who also
experience a mental illness to assist with housing, access to social services
and to engage individuals in mental health treatment
• Once opened to the Harris Center, the client is assigned a Rehab Worker or
Case manager attached to one of the clinics for ongoing support
Homeless Outreach Team
(HOT)

20. Hours of Operation: M-F 7am-6pm
The Team Members:
• Build personal relationships with those living on the streets and to find out why those
living on the streets are not taking advantage of the available help
• Network and build relationships with the providers in order to find out what help is
available
• Match the person with the provider and then assist them though the process to the
best of our ability
Homeless Outreach Team
Overview

21. 911 Crisis Call Diversion Project

22. 911 Crisis Call Diversion Project
Mission Statement
• Pairing the skills of mental health phone counselors with the 911 system to
divert consumers not at imminent risk away from any police interaction and
toward more appropriate levels of care, in addition to de-escalating
consumers before police involvement on scene, is consistent with the
strategic directions of both The Harris Center for MH and IDD and The
Houston Police Department.

23. Vision Statement
• The collaboration with 911/HPD will reform the way consumers are
connected to mental health resources and diverting them away from the
police/criminal justice system and de-escalating callers in crisis to aid in
public safety before police arriving, simultaneously reducing the recidivism
rate of police interaction.
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24. Key Players
• The 911 Crisis Call Diversion Program is a collaboration of The Harris
Center for Mental Health and IDD Services - HelpLine, Houston Police
Department – Mental Health Division, and the Houston Emergency
Communications Center.
• The HEC Center processes approx. 9,000 calls for service daily.
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25. Brief History
• Building on the successes of prior HPD/MHMRA collaborations (such as
the Crisis Intervention Response Team, Chronic Consumer Stabilization
Initiative, and Homeless Outreach Team) and the steady increase of mental
health related calls for service through 911, the idea was formulated to look
at diverting non-imminent risk calls that concern mental health issues away
from HPD and to Harris Center Phone Counselors.
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26. Psychiatric
Emergency
Services PES at
the
(Neuropsychiatric
Center-NPC)
Mobile Crisis
Outreach Team
(MCOT)
MHMRA
Helpline
Crisis
Intervention
Response Team
(CIRT)
Critical Time
Intervention
(CTI)
Crisis
Stabilization
Unit
(CSU)
Crisis
Residential
Unit
(CRU)
Chronic
Consumer
Stabilization
Initiative
(CCSI)
PEER
Supports
CPEP Program Timeline
CIRT Expansion
to include Harris
County Sheriff’s
Office
Homeless
Outreach Team
(HOT)
20151986 1999 2002 2003 2008 2009
Projects for
Assistance in
Transition from
Homelessness
(PATH)
20041990
Harris
County
Psychiatric
Intervention
(HCPI)
Branard
Co-
Occuring
Disorders
(COD)
2011
Post
Hospitalization
(PHCRU)
&
911 HelpLine
Project
2013
Interim
Care
Clinic
(ICC)

27. 911 Call Statistics
• HPD Mental Health Related Calls for Service:
• 2010 25,105
• 2011 25,489
• 2012 27,655
• 2013 29,272
• 2014 32,544
• Typically, less than 1% of this call volume result in criminal charges.
• Between 9,000 and 12,000 calls coded as mental health related in 2014 were cleared as “information only”
which means that an officer took no action on the scene.
27

28. Program Phases
• Phase 1 – 0 – 6 months – Project Clinical Team Lead will work directly with
HEC, HPD, and The Harris Center to solidify processes at all levels and
prepare for the team to go live in Phase 2. During this phase the Clinical
Team Lead will also be available to provide on-site crisis call de-escalation for
crisis calls in progress while an officer is in route.
• Phase 2 – 6 months – 24 months – Phone Counselors will take calls at
HEC as routed to them by the Call Takers. Clinical Team Lead will do
quality assurance on all calls, Data Analyst will track data, adjustments will be
made as needed.
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29. Funding
• 2 years of funding has been awarded for this project from private
philanthropy.
• Year 2 of funding is contingent on submitting a sustainability plan to these
funders for how the project will be funded past the end of the pilot.
• 3 years of partial funding has been awarded through a Department of Justice
grant.
• We are working with city, county and state government to form a
sustainability plan for permanent funding.
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30. For more information please contact:
Barbara Dawson
Deputy Director, CPEP
The Harris Center
9401 SW Freeway
Houston, TX 77074
713-970-3344
Barbara.dawson@mhmraharris.org
Jennifer Battle
HelpLine Director
The Harris Center
9401 SW Freeway
Houston, TX 77074
713-970-8240
Jennifer.battle@mhmraharris.org
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