Transforming Behavioral Health Crisis Response Services
The Greater Baltimore Regional Integrated Crisis System (GBRICS) partnership is an innovative project that will invest $45 million over five years to transform behavioral health response crisis services in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County and Howard County. The goal is to create a well-functioning behavioral health crisis response system that helps resolve crises quickly for individuals and families, meets people where they are comfortable, and provides appropriate care and support, while avoiding unnecessary police interaction, emergency department (ED) use, and hospitalization. This will also improve infrastructure and expand behavioral health crisis services to be available around the clock.
Overall Goal: Reduce unnecessary Emergency Department use and police interaction for people in behavioral health crisis
Create a regional hotline that is supported with infrastructure for real-time capacity and referrals tracking, coordinated dispatching of mobile crisis response plus dashboard reporting
Expand capacity, set regional standards following national best practices
Support behavioral health providers to offer same day access (SDA) services to address immediate needs
Support culture change to increase awareness and use of the hotline as an alternative to calling 911 or using the ED
Drive regional activity and shared accountability
When will GBRICS be up and running?
The investment of nearly $45 million, five-year grant for GBRICS was announced at the end of 2020. Planning, coordination and implementation activities to transform the behavioral health crisis response system begin in 2021. The integrated crisis response system will be developed in phases, with all pieces of the GBRICS proposal expected to be in place by the end of 2023. The five-year grant period ends in December 2025.
Who developed GBRICS?
The GBRICS Partnership was developed by a broad coalition of 17 hospitals, four local behavioral health authorities, and many behavioral health experts and community leaders across the four local jurisdictions.
Initial investment of funding for GBRICS was made available by the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission Regional Partnership Catalyst Grant Program. Behavioral Health System Baltimore is the Regional Administrative Manager for GBRICS, responsible for day-to-day project management, fiscal accountability, and supporting collaboration among stakeholders.
To see the full list of collaborators, see the full GBRICS Partnership Proposal. The 17 hospital partners who helped develop GBRICS are:
Hospital Partners:
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Other Key Partners:
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How can I get involved with GBRICS?
There are a variety of ways to get involved in developing GBRICS, as the system needs to work for everyone. To start, join the GBRICS email list to receive announcements of GBRICS community forums where you can get more information as the work unfolds, to engage in the topics or areas of interest to you, and to offer your ideas and feedback. Scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up for GBRICS emails.
Resources
GBRICS in the News
- County Leaders Hail $45 Million Behavioral Health Grant as ‘a Game-Changer’ (Maryland Matters)
- Baltimore metro region receives $45 million in funding to improve crisis response services (Baltimore Sun)
- View the GBRICS Partnership Announcement Press Release
For more information about the GBRICS Partnership contact, Adrienne Breidenstine, at Adrienne.Breidenstine@bhsbaltimore.com