Virtual Crisis Care connects rural law enforcement with mental health resources during emergencies

Virtual Crisis Care programs, expanding from South Dakota into Wyoming, are helping law enforcement in rural communities gain on-demand access to mental health professionals to de-escalate emergency situations, reports Madeline de Figueiredo for The Daily Yonder.

Officers connect with the telemedicine network Avel eCare in real-time, effectively helping about 80% of individuals across the country to receive care safely at home rather than being unnecessarily hospitalized or incarcerated, Figueiredo explains.

A clinician from Avel eCare specifically assigned to an individual “conducts a risk evaluation, creates a safety plan, and works with officers on next steps,” Figueiredo reports. Because Virtual Crisis Care isn’t just for an emergency response, these next steps always include connecting the individuals with local community health centers for follow-up care.

This program, funded by the Helmsley Charitable Trust, has been used in South Dakota for over five years by more than 30 rural law enforcement departments. Last year, the program was introduced to the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police (WASCOP), with about 25% of law enforcement agencies participating so far.

“I think if you look at serving in rural America, not only on the criminal side but on the mental health side, you deal with the same people over years and decades. If you can get someone struggling with addiction or mental health into treatment and help them change their life, then we’re not seeing them anymore on the law enforcement side of things,” the executive director of WASCOP, Allen Thompson, told Figueiredo.