Boulder’s Crisis Intervention Response Team, once solely focused on urgent mental health and substance use crises, now dedicates a growing amount of time to case management and follow-up. This shift aims to address root causes and support people beyond the immediate crisis.
The Crisis Intervention Response Team, or CIRT, was created in 2021 to pair licensed clinicians and professionals with police officers on 911 calls involving mental health and other crises. The goal was to prevent police encounters from escalating to unnecessary arrests or use of force.
Since its inception, CIRT has expanded to include ongoing case management, which includes connecting people to service providers following a crisis, according to an October 2024 consultant’s report on the program.
“It’s great for the clients, but also, selfishly, it’s good for the clinicians,” Lucy Larbalestier, a licensed clinician and manager of the City of Boulder’s behavioral health crisis response program, told Boulder Reporting Lab. “They can walk away from that crisis contact feeling like, ‘yeah, I actually have something I can offer this person.’”
Boulder first launched a version of the CIRT program in partnership with Mental Health Partners in 2014. But in 2021, it transitioned to using city-employed clinicians, in part to better understand root causes of crisis situations, according to a memo by city staff.
Unlike Denver’s STAR program, which uses non-police teams, Boulder’s CIRT program includes a police officer on every call. To complement CIRT, the city created a non-police emergency response team, CARE, in late 2023.
Though CIRT initially faced hiring challenges due to a national clinician shortage, the city now employs 14 behavioral health staff across CIRT and CARE, including clinicians, case managers and two paramedics, according to city officials.
The latest report, authored by Ohio-based Bauman Consulting Group, found that half of CIRT’s contacts involve issues of suicide, suicidal ideation or substance use. Moreover, nearly half of the people contacted by CIRT were already engaging with other service providers, underscoring how even those connected to services are not getting the care they need.
According to city officials, service gaps in the region include long waitlists, housing instability and limited treatment options for fentanyl and methamphetamine addiction.
“If you have a certain constellation of acute symptoms, and especially if that involves substance use, including methamphetamine use, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to productively engage with the services that we currently have,” Larbalestier said.
The team operates from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. The report found demand exceeded availability on weekends, though the city this year added weekend staff, a change not reflected in the report.
Between 2022 and 2023, CIRT documented 4,119 contacts — about half were emergency responses, and the rest were mostly case management and follow-ups. The report also documented referrals, many of which were made to Mental Health Partners, including its walk-in crisis center, private therapists, the emergency department or homelessness services.
Most CIRT responses resulted in people staying in the community, rather than involuntary commitment to a hospital or jail, according to the report. Arrests occurred in 2.5% of cases. Police used force six times over the two years.
The report highlights the challenge of gauging CIRT’s overall impact, as it does not measure what might have occurred had the crisis intervention team not been involved. The report also does not detail the outcomes of case management or referrals. An early CIRT focus was to keep homeless people out of jail. An initial report found that 25% of CIRT contacts involved people experiencing homelessness, with another 8% at risk of losing housing. The latest report omits demographic data due to privacy regulations.
Generally, city officials said the goal of CIRT is to ensure people are not harmed after calling 911 and that they have autonomy over the outcome.
“A huge point of success for us is that people get to remain in the community as much as possible and retain as much self-determination in their care and the next steps as possible,” Wendy Schwartz, senior manager with the city’s Human Services Department, told Boulder Reporting Lab.
To reach CIRT during operating hours, call 911. For non-emergencies, dial 303-441-3333. Mental Health Partners also has a 24-hour, non-police crisis intervention line at 1-844-493-8255 or by texting TALK to 38255.
I’m happy to see the expansion of this program. At one point in my career as an RN I worked with the police in another city with a program similar to CIRT. So I have personal experience with knowing the effectiveness of these programs. Unfortunately with what’s occurring in Boulder a major component is missing for success of such a program here. There is a lack of services that specialize in addiction, especially for needed inpatient programs that can also work with our criminal Justice system. At this point, most the load is placed on MHPs. Last I knew they had only two licensed therapists where the rest are interns and a two month wait list to see a psychiatrist to prescribe needed medications. To simply avoid this critical component in the dearth of drastically needed addiction services and simply expand this CIRT program will not achieve the desired outcome.
This is great information. The number of contacts between 2022 and 2023 is significant – more than 10/day. Is there any information on number of contacts so far this year? I was under the impression before that CARE and CIRT were redundant projects, but now that they have expanded services to case management that makes a lot more sense. Too bad MHP has decreased services rather than expanded. The scope of mental and behavior health problems has overwhelmed the whole system.