BHCore will award seven to nine grants to Washington state Fire/EMS departments focused on innovations that create, expand or make permanent co-response behavioral health services in their communities. Single departments will be awarded grants up to $270,000 and $400,000 will be available for collaborative cross-departmental efforts during the 18-month grant period.
Please review the RFP and submit your completed application by 5 p.m. on Dec. 1, 2025.
Questions? Contact Jennifer Cohen, watch our Zoom information session or download FAQs.
Grants are awarded to agencies working within one of four designated innovation areas:
- Efforts to support suicidal patients through community-based care—Agencies applying for this innovation area must propose plans that divert patients from emergency rooms, connect them to community-based care post-ER discharge, provide supportive follow-up contacts, work with medical directors to review suicide-prevention response protocols, or build collaborative relationships with other service providers in the region to support suicidal individuals.
- Efforts to address behavioral health needs through field-based medication administration programs—Agencies applying for this innovation area must incorporate brief interventions and coordinated care with community partners in their proposal. Eligible programs may focus on opioid-use disorder, alcohol-use disorder or the need for antipsychotic medications in the field.
- Efforts to use and supervise peer-support specialists as part of a co-response team or work with peers through a referral pathway.
- Efforts to employ multidisciplinary teams to respond to behavioral health emergencies and referrals in underserved areas of the state.
Proposals that include collaborations with other departments, crisis system partners or behavioral health administrative services organizations are strongly encouraged. Use of funds for staffing costs is recommended. Alternative uses are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.