Holly Harris, LPC, Deschutes County Behavioral Health Director, and Sheriff L. Shane Nelson, Deschutes County Sheriff discuss:

• The benefits of having a 24 hour walk-in crisis stabilization center with therapists on staff.

• The stabilization center takes anyone unless there is a safety concern, and law enforcement can voluntarily drop people off in lieu of taking them to jail. The attitude is, “Coming from a place of yes.”

• The staff can de-escalate situations early for people by providing basic needs - food, rest, shower, etc - so the crisis doesn’t escalate, and the person can stabilize.

• Diverting people to services rather than taking them to jail makes the community and the jails safer.

• The center opened during COVID, and staff wellness has been a focus through safety implementation, debriefing, the betterment committee, and being mission-driven. It creates psychological safety for both staff and clients.

• The staff was provided with situational awareness and tactical training from law enforcement, and they rarely need to call police for back-up and initiate the involuntary process.

• The stabilization center staff also provided training to law enforcement, but it's not just training - it's about the partnership, and creating the trust to be able to provide the best services for the clients.

• The initial funding came through the sheriff’s department to start the project. The stabilization center later applied for, and received, funding from the IMPACTS grant.

• Approximately 400 people were diverted from jail in one year, with an average of 1500 mental health calls. Having behavioral health taking the non-law enforcement response calls straight from dispatch to respond to behavioral health crisis situations has helped to save an estimated $75,000 in officer time.

• Substance use goes hand-in-hand with the behavioral health problems, and won’t exclude a person from receiving services from the stabilization center.

For more information about the intersection between criminal justice and behavioral health in Oregon, please reach out to us through our website at http://www.ocbhji.org/podcast and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OCBHJI/. We’d love to hear from you.

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