As King County begins a massive expansion of its mental health system, a collaboration among some of Seattle’s smaller neighbors may provide a window into the future of care for people in crisis. Since June 2023, the cities of Bothell, Kenmore, Kirkland, Lake Forest Park and Shoreline have collaborated to send mental health professionals to 911 calls alongside police officers and firefighters. The Regional Crisis Response Agency ’s 13 crisis responders assist with calls that have a mental health or substance use component, working to de-escalate crisis situations and help community members connect to resources.
When a walk-in mental health crisis center opens this month in Kirkland, supported by the same five-city coalition, North King County will have the trifecta of crisis services: “somewhere to go” (the center), “someone to respond” (the crisis responders) and “someone to call” (the 988 crisis line). Agencies around the country have sent mental health professionals to respond to 911 calls for decades, but the push for this type of response intensified after George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police in 2020. A 2023 study from the University of Washington School of Social Work identified 61 co-response programs in Washington state, operating across 44 cities and 14 counties.
But the programs are often small, with limited staffing and hours. Seattle’s police and fire departments both employ mental health professionals, and the city’s six-person CARE .