Meet the BHCST
Johns Hopkins has launched the Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team to improve our responses to service calls involving mental health issues.
Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team
This effort pairs licensed mental health clinicians with Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) trained JHU Public Safety officers to respond to people experiencing behavioral health crises on or immediately surrounding our Baltimore campuses. JHU is the first university in the United States to launch a campus-based 24/7/365 mobile crisis co-response team.
The team can be reached through the BHCST Access Line at 410-516-9355, or by calling the Public Safety Communications Center.
We partner with Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc. (BCRI), to support JHU in providing quality mental health crisis assistance for our Baltimore neighbors, leveraging their unique position as an unparalleled leader in providing robust and effective behavioral health crisis care throughout the city of Baltimore.
Frequently Asked Questions
Johns Hopkins is a pioneer in the emerging best practice of mobile crisis co-response teams on college and university campuses.
What is the JHU Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team (BHCST)?
The JHU BHCST is a mobile crisis co-responder program that pairs licensed mental health clinicians with specially trained public safety personnel. The BHCST provides immediate assistance to those who need it and, just as importantly, links individuals in crisis to ongoing university support services in the days and weeks that follow. For community members in crisis who are not directly affiliated with JHU, BHCST clinicians facilitate connections to Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc. (BCRI), a well-established and highly respected community organization with significant experience helping individuals in crisis in Baltimore City.
Currently, what happens if someone has a behavioral crisis at JHU?
While calls can come in from any number of sources, Johns Hopkins Public Safety officers are often the first and sole in-person responders to behavioral health emergencies within our university community. After Public Safety receives a call through dispatch, they determine if the call for assistance has a behavioral health component. In the case of a student, they contact the appropriate campus mental health center for consultation (e.g. undergraduates are referred to the Counseling Center). JHU students comprise nearly three quarters of the behavioral health calls received through dispatch. Immediate and follow-on care is then transitioned to one of these mental health centers if the incident occurs between 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday.
For behavioral crisis calls that occur on weekends or after business hours, Johns Hopkins works with ProtoCall, a 24-hour crisis hotline that offers immediate teletherapy and reports back to JHU student mental health services on the nature and status of each call. Clinicians typically do not respond on-site, providing clinical support remotely via phone or iPad. This process is facilitated by the Public Safety officer who has responded to the call and is present with the distressed individual.
For all other behavioral health calls, Public Safety often responds alongside the Baltimore City Police Department, as these calls are usually routed through 911 dispatch.
What does this team look like in practice ?
The JHU BHCST includes licensed mental health clinicians with expertise in crisis care who respond to behavioral health-related calls alongside Crisis Intervention Team-trained Public Safety personnel. In addition to assessment and stabilization, BHCST clinicians provide short-term counseling and case management to connect individuals with a range of mental health and other support resources. In cases where a person in crisis requires a higher level of care, BHCST clinicians can facilitate hospitalization or connections with intensive outpatient services.
For community members in crisis who are not directly affiliated with JHU, BHCST clinicians facilitate connections to Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc. (BCRI), a well-established and highly respected community organization with significant experience helping individuals in crisis in Baltimore City.
