Launch a Police Mental Health Collaboration (PMHC) program that will deliver crisis response services through coordination with the City of Eugene Police Department and Lane County Behavioral Health.

The purpose of this proposal is to secure funding for the expansion of the co-responder model program initiated by the Eugene Police Department and Lane County Behavioral Health. Over the last several years, many municipalities have implemented alternative response models that function to reduce the harms associated with police contact and to divert from police the low risk calls for service involving individuals experiencing a behavioral health or life crisis. The co-responder model appears to have the highest efficacy in addressing together the criminal and behavioral health elements of this complex issue to ensure both public safety and a reduction in the likelihood of incarceration or recidivism. Co-responder teams include a qualified mental health professional (QMHP), embedded within a police unit, who responds to behavioral health-related calls for service and conducts intensive behavioral health clinical assessment, diagnostic, and care coordination services for individuals with frequent police contact. Nowhere is this need greater than among the unhoused population, where many individuals suffer from mental health disorders (MHDs) or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (MHSUDs).

The City of Eugene, Oregon has led the nation in population-adjusted homelessness rate (432 unhoused individuals per 100,000 residents), with current estimates above 3,000 unhoused individuals. The target population of this program is the large community of unhoused individuals currently residing within the Downtown geographic area of Eugene. The co-responder model program plans to serve approximately 300-400 of these unhoused individuals. The Eugene Police Department will collaborate with Lane County Behavioral Health’s Forensic Intensive Treatment Team (FITT), a mobile behavioral health and substance abuse treatment team designed to provide intensive clinical care, case management, and peer support for some of Lane County’s most complex forensic clients. The co-response team will work together to execute the deployment of a co-response team to mental health calls for service, establish of a law enforcement medical health database, provide rapid access to street-level psychiatric care, initiate clinical and case management referrals, provide triage, assessment, and treatment for MHDs and MHSUDs, and to support clients during court procedures. The expected outcomes of this program are improved safety in the Downtown area, and an increase in access to behavioral health services, and a decrease in repeat encounters with the criminal justice system. To accomplish these activities and expected outcomes, the Eugene Police Department is requesting $550,000 in funding for two contracted full-time positions, an embedded QMHP and peer support specialist.