Resources for Practitioners in Crisis and Conflict Response
Support for Phone and Field-Based Response Teams – Managers, Frontline staff, and City and County Executives
Our Areas of Expertise
Practical tools for 911, 988, Mobile, and Mediation response teams
911-988 Call Transfers
Build and mature this vital partnership
Mobile Crisis Response Teams
Measure and improve access and service quality
Field Mediation Teams
Add a dispute response capability to your 911/ 988 ecosystem
Community and Cross-Agency Engagement
Nurture feedback, referrals, and buy-in
Overall View: Crisis Calls - Triage Recommendations
Enhancing Access to Care: Building Call Transfer Collaborations Between 911, 988, and Their Partners
A report offering recommendations and practical frameworks for county or city agency leaders and their delegates at 911 call centers, 988 call centers, and Local Behavioral Health Authorities who are interested in building or improving a collaborative relationship and process for transferring appropriate calls from 911 to 988 for behavioral health crisis response.
Diving deeper, it also offers recommendations for Maryland state-level authorities who aim to remove roadblocks and provide resourcing and policy support to the local jurisdictional practitioners who are collaborating on these efforts.
Best Fit: Crisis Triage Matrix One-Pager
Should a call be routed to 988, Mobile, Co-Response, or traditional Police/EMS?
This groundbreaking triage tool moves beyond a risk-only axis, integrating other important considerations including crisis acuity, phone impairment, whether an in-person response is welcomed (consent), and the presence of natural supports.
Scenarios-Based Application Guide
Brings the Best Fit Triage One-Pager to life by contrasting concrete situations that would result in a specific recommended best-fit response. Includes sections on acuity of psychological distress, physical risks, second and third party callers, youth and older adults, and intellectual or developmental disabilities.
Attribution: We provide editable resources so they can be maximally valuable, including adaptation to your local environment. If you edit one of our resources, please provide this attribution in a footer: “Adapted from materials by Dignity Best Practices.”
Selected Resources from Partners in This Space
2025 National Guidelines for a Behavioral Health Coordinated System of Crisis Care (SAMHSA)
Roadmap to the Ideal Crisis System (National Council for Mental Wellbeing)
Expanding First Response: A Toolkit for Community Responder Programs (Council of State Governments)
Comments on these resources, or another to suggest? We would love to hear from you at contact@dignitybestpractices.org
Subscribe to Our Newsletter!
Keep in touch and stay updated with our quarterly newsletter: