Building the Behavioral Health Crisis Response Workforce

In the past 5 years, significant federal, state, and local efforts have focused on building behavioral health crisis response services and on shifting this responsibility away from law enforcement. However, these efforts have been hampered by limitations of the behavioral health workforce. Strategies are needed to expand the workforce and to ensure that crisis responders have the competencies and skills necessary to meet the needs of the individuals they serve. Existing federal, state, and local mechanisms can be leveraged to support the development of this workforce. This effort includes investing in crisis response workforce development and training, supporting the development of a community behavioral health crisis responder credential, partnering with community colleges to expand the workforce pipeline, and establishing regional centers of excellence for training. It also includes developing strategies to ensure adequate and sustainable funding.