The Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) is a co-response team composed of case managers and licensed behavioral health clinicians who are Housing and Human Services employees. Clinicians respond with Boulder Police Department officers on calls involving a behavioral health crisis.

Overview

The Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) launched in February 2021 to help meet the needs of community members experiencing behavioral health crisis. Behavioral health refers to instances where a person is experiencing mental health issues and/or a substance use disorder.

CIRT is a co-response team composed of licensed behavioral health clinicians from the city’s Housing and Human Services Department paired with Boulder Police Department officers. Under this program, clinicians and police jointly respond to calls involving a behavioral health crisis to help de-escalate situations and connect those in need to available services.

In December 2023, the city launched a complementary alternative response program, Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE), that responds to calls that do not present safety or serious medical concerns and may be more appropriately handled by medical and behavioral health professionals.

Connect with the Crisis Intervention Response Team

Contact CIRT about a crisis

  • In an emergency call 911. In a non-emergency, call 303-441-3333.
  • Please note that CIRT responds during program hours when the police are called to a situation involving behavioral health.

We respond to behavioral health crisis calls.

  • Calls may involve concerns about suicide, someone harming themselves, someone who is experiencing psychosis, extreme behavioral issues or a person who is experiencing a decline and not receiving appropriate care.
  • We serve all people who are experiencing crisis for a variety of reasons.
  • Over the last few years, we have served people from age 9 to 94.

Hours

  • Mondays through Friday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
  • Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Other non-police resources

Colorado Crisis Services and Mental Health Partners clinicians and support specialists are available 24/7:

  • Call: 1-844-493-8255 or 988
  • Text: TALK to 38255
  • Visit: 3180 Airport Road in Boulder.

Contact CIRT program staff

  • Call 303-709-4291 for general questions about the CIRT program.
  • Do not call this number for crisis response.
  • Because of the nature of our work, this number is not always monitored, but we return most calls within 24 hours.

2022-2023 CIRT Annual Report

The City of Boulder has released the Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) program 2022-2023 annual report which highlights successes and challenges of the program from Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2023.

The report summarizes CIRT program operations during 2022 and 2023. Key highlights include:

  • CIRT had 4,119 interactions with community members.
  • The two most common concerns involved in CIRT responses were suicidal ideation followed by substance use/intoxication.
  • Following best practices, community members were stabilized in the community in more than two-thirds of responses.
  • CIRT demand closely aligns with program service hours. During weekend periods in 2022-2023, demand sometimes exceeded service available. In 2024, the city increased CIRT weekend staffing and will continue to analyze the match of service hours to service demand.
  • Two in five community members receiving a CIRT response are already engaged in behavioral health services. However, most of these people were not well connected with those services or required more help than they were receiving.
  • Arrests occurred in 2.5% of CIRT responses, and use of force by police occurred in 0.3% of responses.

On Dec. 1, 2021, the city released its first Crisis Intervention Response Team report. The report, linked below, summarizes the first six months of CIRT operation.

CIRT Reports

FAQs on Concerning Situations

Community members often express that they don’t know what to do when they see someone they’re worried about, or witness behavior that is concerning but not criminal. While there is not a perfect answer to most situations, below are some answers to more specific, frequently asked questions about how to get help when you’re not sure what to do. This FAQ covers services offered by the City of Boulder. Longmont and Boulder County have their own dedicated co-response teams.

What does “behavioral health” mean? Behavioral health refers to situations where a person is experiencing mental health and/or a substance use issues.

Most of the time, the answer is to call the Police and Fire Communications at 911 (if the situation seems like an emergency or if you’re unsure) or the non-emergency line at 303-441-3333.

Community members are not expected to know whether a situation is dangerous or not, so the best option is calling Boulder Police and Fire Communication so that an appropriate assessment of the situation can be made. The goal of the Police Department is not to arrest people with behavioral health issues, and not all behavior that seems concerning is illegal. Whenever possible, police will bring licensed behavioral health clinicians that can help people de-escalate and connect to services. Community members can request clinicians when they call police dispatch if the situation appears to involve someone in behavioral health crisis. There are some situations in which officers legally have no choice but to arrest the individual.

CIRT and CARE prioritize helping people meet their needs while remaining in the community. We recognize that involuntary mental health treatment can be traumatic and make it hard to trust the behavioral health system as a whole. Our goal is to support people to make their own choices about treatment. We initiate mental health holds in a very small number of our calls, and only when there are no other options and there is a foreseeable, imminent risk of harm.

Multiple options exist for community members needing behavioral health help, including:

  • Colorado Crisis Line: 1-844-493-8255 or text TALK to 38255.
  • 24/7 Walk-in Crisis Center & Addiction Services at 3180 Airport Rd.
  • Mobile Crisis Response through Colorado Crisis Line - Crisis clinicians respond to mental health crises in the community including schools, workplaces, centers of worship, private residences, hotels/motels, shelters, stores, community events, outdoor areas, and many other locations. A mobile crisis response can avoid the possibility of law enforcement involvement and/or psychiatric hospitalizations. A mobile response from this team may not be appropriate in all situations. For example, the person for whom mobile crisis response is being called must agree to the service. Call Colorado Crisis Line at 1-844-493-8255 to see if a mobile response is appropriate.

The City of Boulder and its partners operate or fund numerous behavioral health and homelessness programs, including the following programs targeted to meet people where they are out in the community:

  • Boulder Targeted Homelessness Engagement and Referral Effort (BTHERE) – a three-person team with personal experience with homelessness and housing instability, street outreach and engagement, and mental health training. BTHERE provides education and resources with its primary goals of engaging and building relationships as well as connecting people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to services.
  • Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) – two Boulder Police Department officers that focus on engaging people experiencing homelessness in services and housing rather than enforcement actions.
  • Municipal Court Homeless Navigator – focuses on connecting court-involved people experiencing homelessness with appropriate services.

In addition, the city provides funding for behavioral health and homeless services through Mental Health Partners, All Roads and other community partners. Programs are evaluated on a regular basis to identify new needs and opportunities for improvement.

Co-response and Alternative Response Programs

When clinicians respond to call for service through either CIRT or CARE, they use this opportunity to connect people to services to help prevent future crises.

  • Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) - licensed behavioral health clinicians and paramedics that respond to calls that do not present safety or serious medical concerns. CARE is not an outreach team but aims to connect people it interacts with to resources to prevent future crises.
  • Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) – licensed behavioral health clinicians that can help people de-escalate and connect to services. CIRT responds with Boulder Police Department officers when the police are called to a situation involving behavioral health. Like CARE, CIRT is not an outreach team but also works to resource people it interacts with.

Boulder Police Department officers respond to a variety of calls and work to resolve situations using the most beneficial options, including asking for a CIRT response or making referrals to service providers. Certain criteria must be met to arrest someone or take them to the hospital or detox involuntarily for mental health or substance use reasons. Involuntary treatment is associated with significant negative long-term outcomes for many people, so these options should be used thoughtfully and only as a last resort. In most instances involving behavioral health issues, CIRT or CARE will be dispatched to calls for service.

We all have civil rights, including the right to refuse treatment and decline to participate in programs. Sometimes people face complex behavioral health issues that make it difficult for them to understand the help they’re being offered and accept it. There are also situations in which treatment options don’t fully meet individual needs. Although the city works proactively with local and regional partners to support behavioral health needs, availability of treatment options is a national issue involving a complex web of factors including healthcare funding streams, regulations, workforce issues, and the difficulty of delivering effective treatments for some disorders.

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