For nearly four years, Canvas Health has embedded social workers in local police departments to both co-respond to calls and provide follow-up for community members experiencing crisis and/or in need of mental and behavioral health services.
Canvas Health’s embedded social workers are available to co-respond with officers during daytime hours and can provide follow-up to community members involved in weekend and after-hours responses. Follow-up might look like a check-in to review a safety plan or a referral to resources or an assessment.
The program, now in Columbia Heights and Fridley police departments, has been very successful.
In 2024, Canvas Health embedded social workers co-responded 501 times, served 809 clients, and had 2,024 interactions with those clients. Of those co-responses, 96% resolved without use of force and 87% without a hold. That’s by design.
Both programs launched using start-up funding from the US Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Community Policing Development (CPD) Program. Columbia Heights has since left DOJ funding and now the city includes the program in its yearly budget. Fridley is in its second year of DOJ funding and still ramping up.
US DOJ’s CPD is “a competitive grant program designed to advance the practice of community policing by providing guidance on promising practices through the development and testing of innovative strategies; building knowledge about effective practices and outcomes; and supporting new, creative approaches to preventing crime and promoting safe communities.”
Embedded social workers might be unique to many organizations, but for Canvas Health, most of our services happen outside of our seven clinics. In addition to our PD partnerships, Canvas Health meets community members where they need it, with staff in over 50 metro schools and dozens more community locations.
To learn more about this program, visit www.canvashealth.org/adults/police-crisis-co-response
