Fueled by Partnership: Crisis Response and Behavioral Health Team Take to the Road, Expanding Reach and Sharing Expertise

Since spring semester classes concluded in mid-May, members of the Center for Crisis Response and Behavioral Health (CRBH) team at William James College have been busier than ever—celebrating a major milestone in their collaborative work, honoring a key player integral to its success; and hitting the road to deliver decades of combined expertise on the Co-Response Model to a pair of major metro regions beyond the Bay State. 

“Everything we do is truly based on a partnership,” says Sarah E. Abbott, PhD, Director of the Center for Crisis Response and Behavioral Health, who had the privilege of introducing  Chief Lester Baker of the Framingham Police Department (FPD)—one of three honorary degree recipients at the College’s 44th Commencement—to trustees and distinguished guests at the President’s Dinner on June 6. 

“We were colleagues on the same shift for many years,” says Abbott in a nod to their meeting in April of 2003 when, three months following Baker’s arrival as a new patrolman, she was embedded in the FPD as their inaugural co-responder. The innovative model for crisis response, one that pairs police officers with mental health professionals to jointly respond to incidents involving individuals experiencing behavioral health crises, aims to divert individuals committing non-violent offenses from the criminal justice system and into more appropriate community-based behavioral health services.

“We have weaved in and out of each other’s professional lives for more than two decades,” says Abbott of a partnership that solidified as Baker achieved formal leadership roles in the department (he was promoted to Deputy Chief in 2018 and sworn in as chief in 2020). In recent years, the pair have joined forces to replicate the Co-Response Model both across the country, in the Republic of Ireland, and in the Commonwealth. In January, CRBH assumed leadership of the Framingham Police Department Co-Response Program and entered a formal partnership to provide training and technical assistance to co-response programs statewide.

“To have the two entities now formally connected, and for the Framingham Police Department to be a training site for William James College, is just another step in what has been a continuous evolution during our decades of partnership,” says Abbott, underscoring the Department’s staunch advocacy of the College’s Graduate Certificate in Crisis Response and Behavioral Health (they have supported their officer's participation in the program). 

On July 1, an expanded grant from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (the Center’s funding agency for its work in the Commonwealth) formally connects the FPD and the Training and Technical Assistance Center, extending an array of new services—from in-person ride-alongs and meetings to on-the-ground support—for departments statewide interested or currently operating the program model.

 On the heels of their co-hosting the Second Annual Co-Response Research Symposium in late March, members of the CRBH team attended the National Co-Responder Conference in Omaha, NE (hosted by the International Co-Responder Alliance, on whose board Abbott sits) from June 9-12. There, she and Framingham Police Department Sgt. Jason Ball, MS, Teaching Faculty, Graduate Certificate in Crisis Response and Behavioral Health, presented on the Evolution of a Co-Response Policy in Massachusetts to an audience of 80.

“This was a significant achievement for us,” Abbott said of the development of the Framingham Police Co-Response Policy and the collaboration necessary to create a co-response policy suitable for statewide adoption. Myriad potential inflection points were discussed, from the use of bullet-proof vests by clinicians and confidentiality during 911 calls for service involving individuals experiencing a crisis to the voluntary nature of the program for police officers.

“One aspect of our early success can be attributed to the fact that we didn’t mandate officers to use [the Co-Response Model],” says Abbott, who believes this equated to more buy-in from officers once they experienced the benefit of having a Co-Responder on calls alongside them, versus a mandate from the administration. 

“It was fascinating to see [first-hand]  how impactful this work is and [learn] what police actually do on a day-to-day basis,” says Anna Sutton, BA, Program Coordinator, Center for Crisis Response and Behavioral Health, who was not only in attendance but also shocked by how many participants requested a copy of the policy following her colleagues’ presentation—interest that carried into late June and returned to the east coast. 

“We worked with five designated co-responder teams, each comprised of a police officer and a behavioral health specialist, in Washington, DC,” says Abbott of the time she spent training the Metropolitan Police Department Co-Response (COR) Team in June. 

“It was one of the highlights of my professional career, being invited to work in the nation’s capital,” says Abbott, in developing and delivering a location-specific curriculum. “Because the COR Team was at such a high level, we didn't have to teach the basics; we dove into the nuances and systems of care,” says Abbott of touring a psychiatric drop-off center and seeing people in crisis being brought in. Being immersed in DC caused a prevalent challenge in the region to arise in responding to military Veterans in crisis and having the culturally sensitive language to do so. Sgt. Ball, himself a Veteran, brought his expertise and lived experience to this portion of the training. (On campus, he regularly co-teaches in the CRBH Certificate program and a variety of firearms safety courses aimed at training clinicians to deal with clients who are suicidal and in possession of a firearm.)

The training was well received and elicited valuable feedback from participants who deemed it engaging, applicable, and highly digestible. In particular, folks enjoyed the “in-depth discussions” and the presenters’ “top-notch knowledge”—in particular, while " role-playing, especially with regard to meeting folks in the field who are experiencing a mental health crisis.”

Once the Co-Response Model pilot becomes fully operational in Ireland this fall, Abbott is confident it can be launched anywhere. In the meantime, she and her team continue to enjoy their work—fueled by a shared commitment to people getting help. This is more timely than ever for an institution dedicated to educating students for careers that meet the growing demand for access to quality, culturally responsive psychological services for individuals, families, communities, and organizations, locally and around the globe. 

“For President Covino to choose to have a law enforcement leader on the stage during these turbulent times is not only remarkable but also beautifully encapsulates the true partnership at hand,” says Abbott before reiterating the win-win-win nature of the Co-Response Model.

“The police win because they want and get help on some of their most difficult, complicated, and dynamic calls; the mental health provider wins because we get to be on the front line in a safe way and see people at their most vulnerable and truly intervene in the moment, not in an office several days later when the crisis has passed; and it's a win for our students because the co-teaching mode was explicitly designed to include a law enforcement officer and a faculty member at each interdisciplinary class.”

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