​If you're here, you probably aren't even asking this question. But just in case: we did this because every cop, everywhere, should have mental health support on-scene, just like they have EMS. There aren't that many mental health calls for service in a rural jurisdiction and mental health professionals are fairly expensive, especially staffed 24/7. It seemed reasonable to assume that nobody would ever fund a co-responder service that really works for rural cops. 

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But it's probably obvious to you that while behavioral health intervention isn't needed as often in a rural jurisdiction, it's a much bigger problem when it is needed and it isn't there: there's no psych unit; no detox drop-off; no homeless shelter; no women's shelter; only one or two deputies for a large geographical area--along with huge transportation challenges to access those services elsewhere.

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So not even really formed yet, Frontera collaborated with Sheriff Mazzola of Rio Blanco County to run a three-month pilot using telehealth, with no money changing hands. We were just curious.

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Fast forward: it works. It works really well, actually.*

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In the process, we discovered some real advantages that telehealth brings to co-response.  Please don't get us wrong here: we agree with most of our professional colleagues that mental health intervention is clinically superior when conducted face-to-face.  But using telehealth, response time is basically zero: no awkward waiting for the co-responders to get there, no risk during the wait.**

 

There is also no safety issue for the co-responder; the co-responder can engage with a scene that is not yet secure (head's up though: most co-responders aren't trained to negotiate). Usually patrol can go back into service in fairly short order because they don't need to standby as security for the co-responder.  

 

Perhaps most importantly, in a rural jurisdiction the geographical challenges make face-to-face response unrealistic anyway.  So, if we don't do it using telehealth, we don't do it at all.

 

One more thing--some locations don't even have therapists in an office 9 to 5!  Emergency mental health is a highly specialized area within the profession. How on earth could we expect to hire and retain 24/7 emergency mental health staff to do this?

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So, with proof that it could be done using telehealth (thank you, COVID, for at least that one thing), we have now shown that rural law enforcement can be served in the same way.  We have been up and running for over two years now, and it works.

 

Working with everyone's best interest in mind, we try to provide an intervention, not just an assessment.  The respondent is left in place 80% of the time. This makes for better community policing, creates greater trust in the community, and sidesteps many avoidable transports.

 

Follow-up falls to us, and we make the attempt within 24 hours when the respondent isn't held on an M-1 and transported.​​​

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*This actually works so well that we are starting to get reach-outs from urban municipalities who have been using traditional face-to-face co-response.

 

**Of course a team model would be prohibitively expensive and pretty ineffective in a rural jurisdiction with staff spread out over a huge geographical area.  Uncle Murphy says the crisis is usually going to happen where the team *isn't*.