This resource was selected by SMI Adviser content partners and approved by the SMI Adviser clinical expert team for inclusion in the knowledge base.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) and The Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), the designated local mental health and IDD authority for Harris County, are midway through a three phase implementation of their Clinician and Officer Remote Evaluation (CORE) program pilot. Their CORE program is a Telehealth Strategy of responding to mental health crisis calls utilizing a tablet and a HIPAA compliant technology platform to connect a law enforcement first responder in the community with a mental health clinician at the time of the 911 dispatch. This proposed webinar will highlight the experience and benefits of this collaborative effort between law enforcement and a large behavioral health system in utilizing technology to address the growing number of mental health calls in the nation’s fourth largest county.
This webinar provided a discussion of the needs driving this innovative Telehealth approach, the goals of the project, and the recognized challenges and benefits of this strategy. This project has multi-stream funding model from Harris County Sheriff’s Office, The Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD, and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Additionally, funding for evaluation to be completed by the University of Houston Downtown (UHD) and an implementation guide to be developed by HCSO, with input from UHD and The Harris Center, has been generously provided by Arnold Ventures.