Washington County will expand its crisis-response team to include a crisis telecommunicator who will be housed in the county’s Emergency Communications Response Center in Stillwater under the terms of a pilot program approved Tuesday by the County Board.

The board approved a $200,000 grant agreement Tuesday with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety to fund the pilot position. The grant runs from March 1 through June 30, 2026.

Washington County Community Services, in collaboration with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, was awarded the funds to embed a full-time social worker in the role of crisis telecommunicator to work alongside the county’s 911 dispatchers, said Kathy Mickelson, adult services division manager for Washington County Community Services.

The pilot program’s goal is to assist county officials in meeting Travis’ Law, which was passed in 2021 and requires 911 dispatchers to send mental-health crisis workers to a critical law-enforcement situation whenever possible, Mickelson said.

The pilot program also aims to enhance coordination between the sheriff’s office and community services for mental-health support and streamline referrals to the county’s Crisis Response Unit and Coordinated Response Team.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Office of Justice Programs provided funding to local law enforcement and governments to support or expand crisis-response teams, where social workers or mental health professionals are sent as first responders to mental-health crisis calls.

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