In this rural Idaho county, paramedics are being trained to help with mental health crises

Yahoo

10-06-2025

Just an hour after taking her first call as part of a new community paramedic program, Ashley Lynn reflects on the gaps it can fill in rural Washington County. (Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun)
WEISER — In late May, Ashley Lynn responded to her first call.
She drove over to the local sheriff's office, helped a man call 988 — the Idaho crisis and suicide hotline — and stayed with him until more help arrived.
A paramedic for 20 years, Lynn is leading a new program in rural Washington County that's meant to help steer people experiencing mental health issues or searching for help for others toward the best resources.
And, hopefully, free up resources for ambulances and law enforcement.
'The two worst places for someone in crisis to go is the hospital and jail,' Lynn said, repeating what she'd heard in crisis intervention training. 'Currently, that's our only option.'
Southwest District Health launched the Washington County community paramedic program this year — calling it the first of its kind. While it's in its early stages and might evolve, some other rural Idaho counties are already wondering how they can do something similar.
'My vision for this program is to be able to bypass those destinations' — jail and the hospital — and 'get someone right into whatever service is going to best serve their needs,' Lynn told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview. So, 'they're not accruing emergency room or ambulance bills. They're not occupying a seat unnecessarily in the jail, and they're actually getting help and maybe changing the trajectory to where they can get better.'
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Idaho has a shortage of emergency medical services, or EMS, which is a largely volunteer workforce and isn't required to be funded by the state, Idaho Reports reported.
For the past two decades, Weiser Ambulance District has worked with the same operational budget, Lynn said.
Only one ambulance there is staffed with a paramedic daily. There is a backup crew, she said, but 'we don't have extra resources to go out and sit with someone who's experiencing a crisis.'
'Washington County has a really small, although very professional and amazing, team of EMS folks,' said Wendy Young, who manages the federal grant funding the community paramedic program as a project coordinator at Southwest District Health.
'So when somebody is out on one call, that means the next person that's calling, the next person that's in crisis — whether it's a health care or a behavioral health crisis — they might not get the response time that they would appreciate,' she added.
If you, or someone you care about, need help with thoughts about suicide or self harm, or emotional distress, mental health or substance abuse issues, trauma or abuse, you can contact the Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline at 988.
The 988 number is available by text and call — 24/7, every day of the year. Online chats are also available at https://idahocrisis.org/.
The hotline can also dispatch a mobile response team of behavioral health professionals for in-person support. Teams are available from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mountain time, but will be expanded to 24/7 service on July 1, the Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline's website says.
For now, the Washington County program is referral-based.
Lynn's first call came from a local domestic violence-focused group. But as a paramedic, Lynn can pivot to people's needs on calls.
She started by doing a basic medical screening and making sure the person was safe, she said. Then she called the crisis hotline, 988, and stayed until the mobile crisis team arrived.
For calls, Lynn uses an unmarked, 'everyday looking' old county vehicle — not a full ambulance.
'Not every situation ends in transport or needing to go somewhere. But if we're able to stay with that person, deescalate the situation and hopefully resolve what's going on to some degree, and keep them where they're comfortable and safe,' she said.
But paramedics on the behavioral health program crew aren't bound by the same time constraints as typical paramedics, who might need to head to another emergency call, she said.
'If we need to sit with someone for an hour, that's what we're able to do,' Lynn said.
In EMS, burnout is high. But Lynn also hopes the program can show paramedics other career paths.
'My hope is that I can show that paramedics can do more than just cruise around in an ambulance and show up to bad calls and do paramedic things — that we have a lot to offer the health community,' she said.
The program is funded by a five-year grant from the federal government agency called the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said Young, with Southwest District Health.
The grant funds 'need to be used to divert people away from 911 or higher levels of care such as emergency rooms when such diversion is appropriate,' she said.
The grant is in its second year, with the first year largely spent on administrative tasks to set up the program.
In other areas with community paramedic programs, local organizations, law enforcement and even hospitals sometimes pitch in funds.
About an hour away in Ada County, the community paramedic program helps law enforcement, EMS and firefighters with calls.
Last year, the program responded to nearly 1,200 calls for mental health crises, substance use or other needs, Ada County Paramedics Public Information Officer Ryan Larrondo told the Sun in an email. That work included steering people toward the community crisis center, inpatient psychiatric facilities and referrals to other resources.
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But the program also helps with patients' non-emergency needs, receiving nearly 200 referrals from local first responders last year for people who need health resources that aren't mental health related, he added.
In Nampa, the police department is starting a program to send a social worker out to calls with a police officer — similar to programs in local law enforcement agencies in Ada County, like at the Boise Police Department.
The hope is to reduce mental health holds and avoid arrests, said Nampa Police Department Deputy Chief Curt Shankel.
'Becuase that's really a no-win, right? They're not getting the help they need there long term,' he told the Sun in a phone interview. 'So we want to be able to divert that. And hopefully be in a place where we aren't getting law enforcement called as much to the same individuals, or getting to the point where we end up having to make an arrest.'
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