Metropolitan Police Department_FY23 Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Response Program

The Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), in partnership with the DC Department of Behavioral Health (DBH), seeks funding to expand our co-response pilot to include an additional Co-Response and Law Enforcement-based Case Management Services team. MPD is the lead applicant and is a National Public Safety Partnership (PSP) site. The purpose of this expansion is to develop a comprehensive, trauma-informed, multi-disciplinary, best-practice oriented co-response and care coordination program for individuals that may be experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis in Ward 8 of the District of Columbia. The service area is Ward 8, which has been shown to have higher poverty rates, more gun violence, and poorer health outcomes in comparison to other District Wards. According to DC Health Matters (2022), there are 77,756 persons, or 11.2% of the District’s population residing in Ward 8. Of this population, 91.6% have identified as Black/African American, majority female (53.7%), with a median age of 31.32 years. The medium household income is $30,910 (median household income in 2021 was $93,547 US Census) of which 30.2% of persons are below the poverty line (census reported 2021). The proposed expansion will be identified as Co-Response Team-8 or “COR-8” to represent the Ward 8 area of focus. The COR-8 expansion will use funds to hire (1) Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) Crisis Clinician and one (1) DBH Peer Support Specialist. The COR-8 team’s primary activities will be to Co-respond to behavioral health crisis calls with MPD Officers in Ward 8, provide dedicated pre-and-post-crisis care coordination and follow-up services to increase community referral linkages, promote social determinants of health protective factors, and reduce recidivism for both law enforcement and behavioral health super utilizers. This proposed enhancement will help to promote racial equity in a community that has been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely impacted by inequality. Additional project activities include developing partnerships with community stakeholders and organizations that represent Ward 8 and serve historically underserved communities and establishing a COR-8 Advisory Board. Further, outreach campaigns specifically tailored to historically underserved and marinized communities, training to enhance officer knowledge, and regular program evaluation will be conducted. Expected outcomes include the development of a COR-8 multidisciplinary co-response and care coordination team to assist with pre-and- post crisis follow-up, linkages to services, promotion of social determinants of health protective factors, completion of the Implementation Guide, and regular program evaluation and reports.