Utilizing Clinicians at Dispatch

This presentation was part of the 6th Annual Mobile Mental Health Crisis Response Summit.

The appropriate response initiative in Ramsey County was created along side community members throughout the entire process from plan to execution. Mental professionals and mental practitioners have been working along side telecommunicators and dispatchers since 2023 in Ramsey County. With having social workers embedded in the emergency communication center, they are able to help get people connected to resources faster. They can gather information to send to the mobile crisis teams in order to help with efficiency.

Learning Objectives:
1. Triaging mental health and chemical calls in order to identify an appropriate response.
2. Connecting with resources in your community.
3. Ways to improve timely mental health response. 4. Collaboration with multiple agencies.

Content Level: General level: Covers crisis response basics and terminology.

Presenter: Natashia Powell, MS, LPCC, Emergency Communication Center/Embedded Social Worker – Ramsey County and Kyle Davis, MSW, LICSW – Ramsey County

Bio: Natashia Powell has been working as an Embedded Social Worker at the Emergency Communication Center in Ramsey County for almost two years. She has her LPCC in Minnesota and LPC in Wisconsin and has been working as a licensed professional for 4 years. Natashia is also on the board for the Minnesota Counseling Association.

Kyle Davis is the supervisor for the Embedded Social Workers in the Emergency Communication Center and the clinical supervisor for the Embedded Social Worker for the Maplewood Police Department. He has held many positions in his tenure at Ramsey County, including working at the County Mental Health Center and the ACT team. Kyle has been a LICSW over the last 6 years.