City of Denton Police Department's Crisis Intervention Response Team Partners With XFERALL to Expedite Care for People Experiencing Behavioral Health Crises

    AUSTIN, TX, June 03, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The City of Denton Police Department is partnering with XFERALL, the nation's leading mobile patient transfer and data analytics platform, to give its Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) the tools to compassionately and effectively respond to people experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

"The Crisis Intervention Response Team's primary goal is to serve our community and those in need with compassion and steadfastness," said Sara Gawor, CIRT clinician manager. "We hope to connect the community and those experiencing a mental health crisis with resources, options and better understanding of what is available to them, in order to meet their mental health needs. One of the ways we are doing this is by connecting and corresponding in live time, utilizing XFERALL with our local hospitals and our local mental health authority in order to expedite care for individuals in need, as well as increase collaboration."

"We are proud of our work with the Denton Police Department to provide more appropriate and therapeutic interventions for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis," said Nathan Read, CEO, XFERALL. "We applaud the forward-thinking city and police department leadership for their investment in mobile crisis teams and equipping them with our platform to help CIRT's co-responders facilitate essential behavioral health treatment and care."

Through XFERALL's mobile platform, CIRT co-responders quickly and easily connect with local behavioral health facilities that have not only an available psychiatric bed but also the appropriate treatment capacity to meet an individual's unique demographic and care needs.

Law enforcement encounters with people with mental illness use at least 90 percent more resources than encounters not involving mental illness, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center.

"The Denton Police Department is committed to serving our community," said police Sergeant Elisa Howell, Mental Health Division, City of Denton Police Department. "Part of that commitment is ensuring appropriate use of law enforcement resources and keeping our officers focused on crime response and mitigation. Mental illness is not a crime, and having behavioral health professionals on our team helps us respond appropriately to members of our community experiencing a crisis."

"Denton MHMR has partnered with XFERALL since March 2019, and it has truly transformed our ability to accelerate patient transfers," said Veronica Armendariz, program manager, Denton MHMR. "We know that when we can quickly get a patient transferred to a behavioral health hospital to begin treatment and recovery, the risk of negative outcomes goes way down. Using XFERALL also supports our work with patients once they are discharged from the behavioral health facility so we can keep their treatment on track and ensure medication compliance."

Clinicians using XFERALL in hospitals and community mental health centers across the country have experienced an 86 percent reduction in the time from initial transfer request to inpatient acceptance for behavioral health patients. Seventy percent of behavioral health patients on the XFERALL network are placed in an appropriate care facility in under three hours, well below the national average of eight hours.

The Denton CIRT operates as part of the police department's newly created Mental Health Division to reduce the number of arrests of people with mental illness and increase access to treatment. Operating as a co-responder program, the CIRT is staffed by a police sergeant and clinician program manager who oversee four licensed clinicians and four police officers. The team responds to the most serious crisis calls and conducts mental health follow-ups, operating 18 hours a day, six days a week.

ABOUT XFERALL
Based in Austin, Texas, XFERALL works with hospitals, law enforcement, mobile behavioral health crisis teams, and community mental health agencies to accelerate the patient transfer process so patents access clinically appropriate care faster. The XFERALL mobile application and web-based platform coordinates patient transfers to improve access, timeliness, and quality of care for patients with acute physical conditions, such as stroke, trauma, and complex surgical needs, and for patients with behavioral health conditions. For more information, visit XFERALL.com.

ABOUT DENTON POLICE DEPARTMENT
The City of Denton Police Department is an intelligence-led, data-driven, proactive policing organization focused on the tenets of relational policing. Composed of more than 200 sworn and non-sworn personnel, the department strives to make Denton a safe, sustainable, and livable city for everyone, by keeping victims safe and holding offenders accountable. The sanctity of human life is the foundation by which the Denton Police Department serves. Learn more about the department at www.dentonpolice.com. For media inquiries, please call 940-349-8558 or email [email protected].

ABOUT DENTON MHMR
Denton County MHMR Center is the local authority for behavioral health and intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD). We have served the community since 1971. Crisis Services are offered 24/7 through our hotline 1-800-762-0157, our Mobile Crisis Outreach Team, or our Psychiatric Triage Facility. For more information please visit our website at dentonmhmr.org.

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