Healing Bridges

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If you or someone you know needs help, please reach out. We’re here. 💙

**Who is best equipped to respond to a mental health crisis?**

Traditionally, law enforcement officers have often been the primary responders to mental health crises in the community. However, a recent rapid review examining police-only responses, co-responder models (law enforcement paired with mental health professionals), and non-police crisis response teams suggests that there may be important benefits to alternative approaches.

The review found that:

🚓 **Police-only models** have limited evidence demonstrating improved outcomes for individuals experiencing mental health crises.

🤝 **Co-responder models**, which pair law enforcement with mental health professionals, showed promising outcomes, including improved referrals to mental health services and reduced unnecessary hospitalizations or arrests.

🩺 **Non-police crisis response teams** demonstrated encouraging results in connecting individuals to appropriate care while reducing law enforcement involvement in situations where a public safety response may not be necessary.

Importantly, the authors noted that while these findings are promising, the overall quality of research remains limited, highlighting the need for more rigorous studies to determine which approaches are most effective.

What stands out to me is that this conversation isn't about removing law enforcement from crisis response entirely. It's about ensuring that people experiencing mental health crises receive the **right response, from the right professionals, at the right time.**

As communities continue to explore innovative models of crisis intervention, research like this reminds us that effective responses require collaboration between mental health professionals, emergency services, healthcare systems, and community stakeholders.

💬 What are your thoughts on co-responder and alternative crisis response models? Have you seen programs in your community that work well?

**Article Citation:**
Marcus, N., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2022). *Re-examining mental health crisis intervention: A rapid review comparing outcomes across police, co-responder and non-police models*. *Health & Social Care in the Community, 30*(5), e3375–e3387. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13731

Healing Bridges
Finding solutions for behavioral health needs
May 30, 2026 By Kristin Emery 4 min read
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Healing Bridges staff members, from left, therapists Shanya Tinsley and Josey Abraham and Kristina Schuerle, Outpatient Supervisor.
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Healing Bridges has been helping people all around Washington County and neighboring communities since 1968.

Formerly known as Washington Communities Human Services, the organization helps residents find solutions for their behavioral health needs. Their caring staff helps provide responsive and accessible services for children, teens and adults ranging from counseling, medication management and even telehealth services for those who can’t make it into their West Chestnut Street location in person.

Healing Bridges has been named this month’s Driven By Hope Award winner, sponsored by Washington Auto Mall, thanks to its commitment to inspire a healthier, happier community by ending the stigma surrounding behavioral health.

The organization has evolved through several decades with its central focus on providing services for mental health and those with intellectual disabilities and autism. Healing Bridges serves more than 450 individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism, emphasizing community integration over institutional care.

“The mental health clinic in itself is outpatient whereas we also have two programs that go out in the community and are more mobile-based,” says Healing Bridges CEO Natalie Ross. “One is a blended Case Management Department for mental health and the other one is the intellectual disability supports coordination program. That’s similar to case management, but they help set up supports for people with intellectual disabilities and autism.”

Ross has worked in this field for 30 years and has seen major shifts in care and approach.

“When I first started in the field, most of our individuals that we have now in that intellectual disabilities program would have been in an institution back then,” she says. “Over the course of time and evolution of human services, they realized we need to have people out in the community as opposed to locked up in institutions. It doesn’t make sense for them or their families. It doesn’t make sense financially for the budget of the state or federal government.”

She says their focus is to surround their clients with supports and give them assistance so they can be as successful as anyone else.

“We’ve helped people with following their dreams of wanting to get a job, go to school, those kind of things. And they would have never been able to do that years ago because they would have been in some kind of hospitalization or long-term treatment facility. On the mental health side, it’s the same thing. If you need social supports, mental health or substance abuse treatment, we’re helping to link them up with those resources.”

Healing Bridges is a non-profit organization that relies on government grants, insurance reimbursement and fundraising/donations to keep serving the community.

“We take everyone and anyone whether they have funding or not, and we will help them to get the funding if they need to,” Ross says. “But we see individuals mostly, about 80% of them are on some kind of subsidized funding with Medicaid or Medicare services. We are centrally located in Washington, so that people with issues with getting travel can come and see us.”

One exciting new venture for Healing Bridges is spearheading the Responders First Initiative and developing a Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) team in Washington County to help first responders affected by depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to the nature of their work.

“We recently got a $180,000 grant to start up the project with first responders to get them resources and services,” explains Ross. “They’re dealing with traumatic incidences on a regular basis that nobody else can fathom, and yet we hardly ever see anybody saying, ‘I need help.'”

Ross began talking with members of the first responder community about a year ago with nearly everyone she spoke with saying they knew someone at some point who had dealt with PTSD, had considered su***de or became involved in substance abuse or gambling.

“There’s a high propensity for all of those kind of things with first responders, so we started to come together to look into what we can do about it.”

The team will train peer team leads in departments across Washington County who can be dispatched to help first responders who might be struggling. Ross says the response has been huge and overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s all anonymous. It’s very, very confidential, so it doesn’t get back to their boss if they reach out for help, or if we try to debrief with them.”

Ross can’t say enough good things about her staff of 35 employees.

“They are very caring, compassionate and dedicated,” she says. “You’re not becoming millionaires in human services. Every employee that we have is there for helping the community and the consumers.” For more information on Healing Bridges, its services or to make a financial donation to support the agency, visit myhealingbridges.org or call 724-225-6940.

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🚨 Attention Pennsylvania First Responders! 🚨

A new law — Act 121 — takes effect October 29, 2025, and it’s a big win for those who serve our communities.

💙 What it does:

Act 121 makes it easier for first responders (firefighters, police, EMS, and others) to get workers’ compensation for post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI).

Before, you had to prove your trauma came from something “abnormal” on the job — which was nearly impossible in this line of work.

Now, under Act 121, PTSI caused by traumatic events (like serious injury, death, mass casualty, or child trauma) is covered.

🧠 To qualify, you’ll need:

A diagnosis from a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist

Proof the trauma happened while doing your job

A claim filed within 3 years of diagnosis

⏰ Benefits can last up to 104 weeks (2 years)

This law finally recognizes the real emotional impact of the work you do every day. 💪

Visit www.reigletherapeutics.com to connect with specialized therapists today!