As part of our Return on Response campaign, a coalition-founded initiative highlighting the life-saving, cost-effective impact of partnerships between behavioral health providers and first responders, we’re spotlighting programs that are making a difference in communities across Washington state. One of these programs is unfolding in Whatcom County, where Compass Health has embedded a Designated Crisis Responder directly within the fire department to respond to urgent mental health and substance use needs in downtown Bellingham, Wash.
Like many communities nationwide, Bellingham, Wash., and surrounding Whatcom County have faced increasing mental health and substance use challenges, including record overdose rates in recent years. Recognizing that traditional response systems alone weren’t enough, Compass Health and the Bellingham Fire Department came together to create a more coordinated approach to crisis care.
It’s a form of co-response, but as Bellingham Fire Department Division Chief of Emergency Medical Services Scott Ryckman notes, it’s not a model pulled off the shelf. It was built around the unique needs of the Bellingham community.
“Our partnership with Compass Health grew out of what we were seeing on the ground here every day,” Ryckman said. “By bringing emergency medicine and behavioral health together, we’re able to look at each situation more completely and respond in ways that truly support people in crisis.”
Meeting Rising Needs Together
Compass Health has an expansive footprint in Whatcom County, delivering a full continuum of care – from mobile crisis outreach and crisis stabilization to intensive and outpatient therapy, housing, and recovery supports – to adults, youth, and families.
That continuum is what first connected Compass Health and the Bellingham Fire Department. Initially, Compass Health partnered with the department to provide education and training around behavioral health crises, helping first responders better recognize, respond to, and support individuals experiencing mental health and substance use challenges.
As those challenges intensified, both organizations began to see the limits of working in parallel. According to Chelsea Van Vooren, program manager for Compass Health’s Whatcom County Mobile Crisis Team (MCOT), they realized that standing side by side could allow them to deliver quicker, more effective, and more compassionate care.
Chelsea Van Vooren, program manager for Compass Health’s Whatcom County Mobile Crisis Team (MCOT)
The Team Making It Work
Meet Jeremy Caplan, a Community Outreach Designated Crisis Responder (DCR) at Compass Health.
Last year, Compass Health made a shift. Rather than deploying Jeremy independently through its Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT), the organization partnered with the Bellingham Fire Department to co-locate him in the department’s downtown office – alongside community paramedics and staff from other local resource organizations.
From there, Jeremy has direct access to the dispatch system and can respond in real time to 911 calls involving a behavioral health component. Depending on the situation, he may arrive with community paramedics, fire, law enforcement, a combination of responders – or independently.
Once on scene, Jeremy leads de-escalation, conducts behavioral health assessments, and connects individuals to appropriate care. That can include crisis stabilization at Compass Health’s Whatcom County Triage Center at the Anne Deacon Center for Hope, involuntary treatment, when necessary, outpatient services, or other community-based supports.
His presence at the downtown office – paired with the strong working relationships he’s built with first responders – has enabled him to achieve an average response time of just seven to eight minutes.
Those minutes can be life-saving. They also reflect the power of the partnership: the right professionals arriving on scene at the right moment – equipped to deliver the right care.
“Response time is critical to my role as a DCR and to the safety of our community,” said Caplan. “What you see in the first 10 minutes after a 911 call can be very different from what you see 30 or 40 minutes later. I need to see the behaviors that led to the call – that’s what helps me connect people to the appropriate care. Because of the way this program is structured, we’re able to respond quickly and provide support when it matters most.”
Bellingham Fire Department EMS Captain and Community Paramedic Steve Larsen likens having Jeremy embedded with the team to carrying a Swiss Army Knife.
“Before, we tried to fix every situation with the same tool,” said Larsen. “A hammer can’t tighten a bolt. But a Swiss Army Knife can handle multiple needs. Bringing Jeremy into our response gives us the right tools to support people faster and more effectively.”
Jeremy Caplan, a Community Outreach Designated Crisis Responder (DCR)
When the Right Care Arrives First
At the downtown Bellingham office, Jeremy works side by side with the Bellingham Fire Department’s Community Paramedic Program, which was launched more than a decade ago to support high utilizers of the 911 system. Many of the individuals served are elderly, unhoused, medically fragile, or facing complex social challenges.
The program emphasizes proactive outreach, reducing unnecessary emergency calls, and connecting people to ongoing support. It has already made a meaningful impact on the local community, and the partnership with Compass Health has strengthened it even further.
Now, alongside those efforts, Jeremy brings clinical behavioral health expertise and direct access to Compass Health’s continuum of crisis services and recovery supports.
That connection to care is driving stronger, longer-lasting outcomes.
Steve Larsen, Bellingham Fire Department EMS Captain and Community Paramedic
A Return on Response
What’s happening in Bellingham shows the impact that’s possible when first responders and behavioral health professionals work as one team.
Compass Health and the Bellingham Fire Department are united by a shared commitment to community well-being – and that commitment continues to drive innovation, stronger outcomes, and smarter use of emergency resources.
“Our teams saw an opportunity to do more – and do it better,” said Tom Sebastian, CEO of Compass Health. “Now people are getting connected to care sooner, first responders are supported in new ways, and the community is seeing real change.”
Learn more about the Return on Response campaign here.