photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Senior Director of Crisis Services at Bert Nash Ryan Sztorch and Deputy Director of the Emergency Communications Center Sonya Baeza speak with county commissioners about the Bert Nash Mobile Response Team on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.

A mobile team specializing in de-escalating mental health emergencies in Douglas County responded to nearly 80% more incidents in 2024 than in 2023 thanks to a change that made it easier to access, county leaders heard on Wednesday.

The Douglas County Commission heard a presentation at its weekly meeting from the Emergency Communications Center and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center staff regarding their alternative 911 response system, known as the Mobile Response Team or MRT. The team provides short-term services to people in a mental health crisis in the location where they are experiencing the crisis.

In 2024, the MRT responded to 743 incidents or “referrals” — a 79.5% increase compared to 414 in 2023. Some individuals have been served by the team multiple times; there were 327 individuals served in 2024, which is a 33% increase from the 246 people utilizing the services in 2023.

“That’s largely because we expanded how people can access us,” said Ryan Sztorch, senior director of crisis services at Bert Nash.

When the team originated in 2022, it was dispatched by the mental health crisis response organization Headquarters Kansas, which manages the 988 crisis line. But then the county and the City of Lawrence completed an assessment of the program through the Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab, and it identified some areas for improvement.

The assessment showed that the team was underutilized; that people had difficulty accessing the team during emergencies; and that it was hard to track and prioritize calls.

In an effort to address these problems, county commissioners shifted MRT dispatch responsibilities from Headquarters Kansas to the Emergency Communications Center in June 2024. That means the Emergency Communications Center can refer calls that would benefit from the MRT’s services. The MRT now takes referrals from the Lawrence Police Department, Eudora and Baldwin City police departments, the Sheriff’s Office, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical the University of Kansas Police Department, and other departments and crisis lines.

Staff has been working hard to identify different types of calls that would benefit from a non-police/EMS response, commissioners were told on Wednesday.

“People are calling for a problem that maybe law enforcement is not the best fit to solve,” ECC Deputy Director Sonya Baeza said. “And then law enforcement would identify this is a good fit for MRT and deploy them out to the field.”

The changes have worked out well both for the agencies and for those using the services, Baeza said.

“It’s been having a very positive impact on the individuals, but also on the people who are doing the work,” Baeza said. “Officers who go out (may not) have the tools available to help this person, and now they have someone making that (happen), so it’s been really great.”

Commissioner Shannon Reid said she was impressed with the evolution of the program and the positive feedback. She said this was an example of at first envisioning this program one way and then pivoting to increase the utilization and success of it.

In other business, county commissioners:

• Approved a resolution to authorize a $55 million bond sale for funding the renovation of the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center and the construction of the new Public Safety Building. Douglas County will use $25 million from cash reserves to also fund the construction.

Bond financing allows the county to borrow money for long-term infrastructure. The bonds will be issued to investors, with repayment over time, including interest. County staff have previously said the projects would be funded without raising taxes for residents. The next step for the bond issuance is awarding the sale of the bonds, which is scheduled to take place on May 7. It is at that point that the county will learn what interest rate the debt will carry. Money from the bond sale is expected to be available to the county on May 28.

• Approved a comprehensive plan amendment to Plan 2040 to update future development plans. This amendment is a part of multiple items needing to be approved to allow a project, proposed by Tenants to Homeowners and a private developer, to develop 120 units of affordable housing on over 14 acres of vacant land near the southeast corner of Bob Billings Parkway and K-10 Highway.

The units will include a variety of different housing options like multi-story apartment buildings, row-house style buildings and duplexes. The revisions plan for 5 acres of the land to be used for medium-density residential and neighborhood-scale commercial uses.

• Approved a site plan that adjusts the boundaries for the three phases of the Hamm-Eudora Quarry in order to adjust mining efficiency. According to a memo in the agenda, the applicant explained that the quarry contains various types of limestone and some may have different marketing windows. Expanding one of the areas will enable the full extraction of these deposits before moving on to the next phase, which has materials with a quicker market.

The conditional use permit for the project was approved by county commissioners on Jan. 12, 2022. The current site plan is not seeking changes to the overall size of the quarry or the many conditions it must meet in terms of its blasting, excavating, trucking and other operational details, a memo in the agenda said.

• Heard a presentation during a work session on the Familiar Faces Initiative, which is intended to improve care coordination and outcomes for individuals with complex behavioral health needs who frequently interact with law enforcement, emergency services and other crisis systems. The presentation also discussed recent efforts to enhance MyResource Connection, MyRC, a tool that improves data-sharing, interagency collaboration, and care coordination in the behavioral health system for individuals with complex care needs and frequent government interactions.

In 2024, efforts were focused on improving care coordination and evaluating outcomes for high-risk individuals, using MyRC analytics. During the session, staff shared how these efforts increased MyRC’s effectiveness in supporting vulnerable populations.

• Heard a department overview of Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical. There was no action following the presentation, which was for informational purposes only.