wa-law.org > bill > 2023-24 > HB 2245 > Substitute Bill
The goals of co-response are to de-escalate situations, divert people from criminal justice and emergency medical systems, and bring medical and behavioral health care into the field to serve vulnerable populations.
During the 2022 legislative session, the legislature passed Substitute Senate Bill No. 5644 which, among other tasks, required a behavioral health landscape analysis. The analysis showed that over 60 co-response teams are currently operating across the state with gaps in funding and services among various regions as well as siloed systems of crisis response between 911 and 988.
The legislature recognizes that there is a need for high acuity first response services for people experiencing behavioral health emergencies as the 988 hotline and behavioral health crisis response systems develop. To help address this need, 911 and 988 personnel must work together to create a seamless crisis care delivery system for individuals in crisis. The 911 co-response teams respond to behavioral health emergencies and other complex needs at the nexus of health and behavioral health. First responders are critical to the provision of medical care in the field and ongoing case management and follow-up services, and they fill gaps in care when there are no mobile crisis teams available.
The legislature recognizes the need for high quality training and certification, workforce development, and peer support to enhance regional collaboration. High quality training and regional collaboration are essential for co-response service delivery to be optimized due to discrepancies in current program efficacy and outcomes. Behavioral health workforce shortages impact co-response, and the nature of the work is challenging as critical incidents happen regularly.
The University of Washington school of social work shall establish a pilot program to administer a co-response education training academy resulting in a certification in co-response best practices in three behavioral health administrative service organizations with a significant co-response footprint. The co-response education training academy shall be expanded to all 10 behavioral health administrative service organizations by 2026. The certification shall be optional and may not serve as an additional requirement for licensure for first responders or licensed human services professionals.
The University of Washington school of social work shall explore, in collaboration with the department, the development of a credential for licensure for behavioral health co-responders.
The University of Washington school of social work may provide grants to small and rural co-response programs for staff to attend the training to offset increased costs associated with sending staff to training.
The University of Washington school of social work shall explore the feasibility of collaborations across the state's institutions of higher education to develop a crisis training certificate for associate, bachelor, and master's degree candidates who want to become crisis responders.
The University of Washington school of social work shall collaborate with a statewide organization focused on co-response outreach to develop and pilot a statewide internal peer support program designed to assist co-response professionals who have faced life-threatening or traumatic incidents that occur while on the job.
Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.
Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, the University of Washington school of social work shall, in consultation and collaboration with the co-responder outreach alliance and other stakeholders as appropriate in the field of co-response:
Establish regular opportunities for police, fire, emergency medical services, peer counselors, and behavioral health personnel working in co-response to convene for activities such as training, exchanging information and best practices around the state and nationally, and providing the University of Washington with assistance with activities described in this section;
Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, administer a small budget to help defray costs for training and professional development, which may include expenses related to attending or hosting site visits with experienced co-response teams;
Develop an assessment to be provided to the governor and legislature by June 30, 2025, and annually thereafter, describing and analyzing the following:
Existing capacity and shortfalls across the state in co-response teams and the co-response workforce;
Current alignment of co-response teams with cities, counties, behavioral health administrative services organizations, and call centers; distribution among police, fire, and EMS-based co-response models; and desired alignment;
Current funding strategies for co-response teams and identification of federal funding opportunities;
Current data systems utilized and an assessment of their effectiveness for use by co-responders, program planners, and policymakers;
Current training practices and identification of future state training practices;
Alignment with designated crisis responder activities;
Recommendations concerning best practices to prepare co-responders to achieve objectives and meet future state crisis system needs, including those of the 988 system;
Recommendations to align co-responder activities with efforts to reform ways in which persons experiencing a behavioral health crisis interact with the criminal justice system; and
ix. Assessment of training and educational needs for current and future co-responder workforce;
Beginning in calendar year 2023, begin development of model training curricula for individuals participating in co-response teams; and
Beginning in calendar year 2023, host an annual statewide conference that draws state and national co-responders. The University of Washington school of social work shall collaborate with stakeholders in the field of co-response to increase the capacity of the annual retreat to make it available to crisis responders across a variety of programs.
Stakeholders in the field of co-response may include, but are not limited to, the Washington association of designated crisis responders; state associations representing police, fire, and emergency medical services personnel; the Washington council on behavioral health; the state 911 system; 988 crisis call centers; and the peer workforce alliance.