The California State Association of Counties honored Kern Behavioral Health and Recovery Services at the 2025 Challenge Awards in Sacramento on Wednesday.
Behavioral health was recognized for its Mobile Evaluation Team Communications Center Program, an effort that embeds behavioral health staff directly in 911 dispatch centers across Kern County.
“There were over 400 entries for this Challenge Award, and they presented 15 of them Wednesday night, so out of 400, Kern County was one of just 15 recognized,” said Tonya Maddox, KernBHRS crisis services administrator.
Agency Director Alison Burrowes said in a news release Thursday that the agency is proud to receive the Challenge Award.
“The award belongs to the many staff across behavioral health, dispatch and our law enforcement partners who make this work possible every day,” Burrowes said. “By embedding behavioral health professionals directly in 911 dispatch centers, we are responding differently to crisis calls and improving access to care for community members when they need it most.
“This program reflects how working together across city and county agencies leads to meaningful improvements in how we support our community members in crisis,” she said.
The MET Communications Center Program began as a collaboration with behavioral health, dispatch and law enforcement leadership to assist with behavioral health-related 911 emergency calls.
The close cooperation and working partnerships that have developed as a result of that collaboration were “unheard of 20-plus years ago,” Maddox told The Californian.
“There was a recognition,” she said, “that, in a lot of ways, the work we do intersects,” she said, referring to roles of law enforcement and behavioral health.
“So finding ways to support one another in our work, whether it be out in the field with our traditional MET responses, or with this, where we’re right there in the heart of it in the dispatch center, it really allows us to connect with our clients at that very beginning stage … and allows us to … get them the best fit possible for treatment.”
With KernBHRS staff assisting in the dispatch centers, more than 6,500 calls over a four-year period were transferred to the Mobile Evaluation Team, and 75% of those calls did not require a traditional response from law enforcement, the agency said in the news release.
These changes not only improved access to care in emergency situations, behavioral health said, it reduced unnecessary responses, leading to cost-savings.
Often, behavioral health professionals are able to de-escalate situations over the phone, offer crisis counseling, and provide transfers to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, Maddox said.
If an in-person response becomes necessary — such as an individual threatening to take his own life, or someone threatening violence — MET staff coordinate with dispatchers to ensure law enforcement and mobile crisis teams respond in a timely and appropriate way.
“They’re highly trained to be able to respond and work with law enforcement, with EMS,” Maddox said, “to do whatever they can to get that person back to safety.”
