Clinician and Officer Remote Evaluation (CORE) program
Promoting health-focused solutions for our community
The Clinician and Officer Remote Evaluation (CORE) program is a
collaborative partnership between The Harris Center for Mental Health
and IDD and The Harris County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO). The program
works to improve response to calls involving a person with mental
illness and connects a law enforcement first responder with a mental
health clinician using a tablet and HIPAA-compliant technology.
Positive Outcomes
- Increases public safety
- Improves triage of mental health crisis calls in the field
- Fills gaps of limited mental health workforce
- Prevents unnecessary transports to the Harris County Jail, treatment facilities and hospital emergency rooms
- Clinicians can provide immediate assistance at any location
- Assessments conducted by the clinicians can decrease unnecessary hospitalizations
- Convenient for clients in areas with limited services
- Clinicians can assist in finding a hospital bed, facilitate transportation and ensure a continuum of care
- Better assessments available to deputies on the scene
- Increased ability to resolve the situation on the scene
- Reduction in transports
- Assists deputies on the scene with useful information, such as patient history
- Reduces time
- Allows Crisis Intervention Response Teams (CIRT) to focus on more serious situations