Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team FAQ

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.

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.

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.

The BHCST is dispatched as the initial response resource if a call for service to JHU Public Safety is believed to have a behavioral health component, such as a request to check on someone’s well-being or a report of someone with suicidal ideation.

The BHCST can also be mobilized through the Access Line (410-516-WELL), which connects callers directly to the clinical team. If a mobile crisis co-response is necessary, the BHCST clinicians contact Public Safety, and the team responds to the location of the caller or person of concern.

Calls range from individuals experiencing general emotional distress, suicidal ideation, welfare checks, victims of assault or trauma, and any other concerns with a behavioral health component.

This program is available for anyone experiencing a behavioral health crisis on and around our Baltimore campuses, where the vast majority of our undergraduate and graduate students reside (only a fraction actually resides on campus). This includes Johns Hopkins students, faculty, staff, and our unaffiliated, Baltimore neighbors — in a moment of crisis, we do not adjudicate assistance based on affiliation status.

The benefit of integrating this team within our existing health and well-being framework is that we are able to connect JHU students, faculty and staff who are interested in accessing longer term behavioral health services with additional resources and counseling beyond the initial mobile crisis response.

For community members in crisis who are not directly affiliated with JHU, follow up and support is facilitated by the BHCST and provided through Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc. (BCRI), a well-established and highly respected community organization with significant experience helping individuals in crisis throughout our region.

The current service area includes the Homewood and Peabody campuses, with expansion to the East Baltimore campus in Fall 2023.

The benefit of integrating this team within our existing health and well-being framework is that we can connect JHU students, faculty and staff interested in accessing longer term behavioral health services with additional resources and counseling beyond the initial mobile crisis response.

JHU developed the Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team (BHCST) in response to a growing need for more substantive crisis services, as supported by data and a desire from our community, for a more comprehensive, public health-based response to individuals who may be experiencing a behavioral or mental health crisis on or around our Baltimore campuses. The BHCST responds to calls within the Johns Hopkins University Public Safety service area without regard to university affiliation; Public Safety provides services and responds to calls within a specified community boundary, including areas heavily populated by undergraduate and graduate students. Currently, the team serves the Homewood campus and surrounding area. We plan to expand coverage to the Peabody campus and Mt. Vernon area in fall of 2022 and then to the East Baltimore campus area over the next year. This scope reflects and honors the university’s commitment to respond to the safety needs of our student population.

In the fall of 2021, Johns Hopkins University launched the Johns Hopkins University Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team (BHCST) on and around the Homewood campus. This is a co-responder program, pairing behavioral health clinicians with specially trained public safety officers who will provide immediate assistance to individuals experiencing behavioral health crises and, just as importantly, link those individuals to ongoing support services in the days and weeks that follow. We plan to expand coverage to the Peabody campus and Mt. Vernon area in fall of 2022 and then to the East Baltimore campus area over the next year.

The Task Force recommended 3 broad recommendations on student health and well-being:

• Promoting a climate of awareness and support for student mental health, wellness, and stress reduction
• Improving student care and access at JHU mental health services
• Expanding training on mental health awareness and resources for faculty, staff, and students

The university has made significant progress putting these recommendations into action. These include, but are not limited to:

• Restructuring Student Health and Well-Being to leverage expertise and centralize efforts
• Increasing access to wellness resources and information such as wellness.jhu.edu and new social media platforms (blogs, Instagram)
• Consolidating mental health services to create greater consistency in student access and experience
• Investing in staffing in all three university mental health offices and disability services
• Enhancing training, outreach and programming to support minoritized and historically underserved populations
• Increasing access to care through TimelyCare an online telehealth platform available to all students and trainees enrolled at least part-time, eliminating provider licensure barriers across state lines
• Providing access to SilverCloud for students and trainees enrolled in full-time programs, which provides a suite of evidenced-based programs on a confidential online portal that teaches users about mental wellness, and provides tips and tools for dealing with anxiety, depression, and stress
• Enhancing faculty training and resources

JHU is one of the first campus-based mobile co-response teams, and the first in the U.S. to launch a 24/7/365 model staffed with licensed clinicians. We have provided consultation to many campuses in various stages of team development and would be happy to share what we have learned. Please send an email to bhresponse@jhu.edu for more information.

Since the program’s launch (Oct 2021 – July 31) – the total number of mobile crisis co-response calls that covered the Homewood and Peabody campuses is 264. Most responses were to students and learners; a total of 8 responses to community members not directly affiliated with JHU occurred during this period.

During these calls, the BHCST clinicians conducted risk assessments, provided compassionate listening, validation, and de-escalation, and helped the person in distress connect to mental health and other helpful resources. The BHCST clinicians have also engaged with students and staff through tele video evaluations when needed.

In addition to the initial crisis intervention, the BHCST clinicians have conducted hundreds of follow-up contacts for support and case management. The BHCST clinicians also consult with faculty and staff who may be concerned about a student or learner to help develop plans for support and intervention.

JHU developed the BHCST in response to a growing need, as supported by data and a desire from our community, for a more comprehensive, public health response to individuals who may be experiencing a behavioral or mental health crisis on or around our Baltimore campuses.

We undertook an in-depth analysis of contemporary best practices and assessed our more traditional, security-based responses and interventions. We considered carefully the recommendations outlined in the 2018 Task-Force-on-Student-Mental-Health-and-Well-being-Final-Report  and feedback we heard directly from our community. We were also guided, in developing this program, by Dr. Ronald Means, a locally and nationally recognized child/adolescent, adult and forensic psychiatrist and expert consultant in the field of behavioral health crisis services, and an Advisory Committee Advisory Committee comprised of faculty, staff, students and neighborhood leaders. Through these multiple efforts, it became clear that many of the calls being addressed by Public Safety could be more effectively and appropriately handled by behavioral health clinicians

Since the program launch in late October 2021 through December 31, 2023, the BHCST has provided 382 mobile crisis responses on and surrounding the Homewood, Mt. Vernon, and East Baltimore campuses. During these calls, the BHCST clinicians have conducted safety assessments, provided compassionate listening, validation, and de-escalation, and helped the person in distress plan next steps. The BHCST clinicians have also had the opportunity to engage with students and staff through televideo evaluations when needed.

The vast majority of the mobile crisis responses have been to students and learners, with 9 total responses provided to non-JHU affiliates. When the team responds to a non-JHU affiliate, clinicians offer a warm connection to city-based crisis response resources. In all but two cases, assistance from community partner Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc. (BCRI) was declined.

Since the launch of the 24/7 Access Line in October 2022, clinicians have fielded 242 telephone triages and consultations.