Clear Creek County CCHAT team provides new responses for 911 calls after Christian Glass' killing
It's not a direct result of the police killing of 22-year-old Christian Glass, but the formation of the Clear Creek Health Assistance Team, or "CCHAT," can't be separated from the controversy surrounding the Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office response that night in the summer of 2022.
Director Clark Church was not afraid to say that call is the exact kind of call they'd be responding to with the hopes for a better outcome.
"We are trying to find better tools for each call," Church said. "An ambulance or law enforcement that go to these calls might not have the resources or skills to see what they can help a person."
Church is just one part of the two-person team, the other being Lynzee Buseck, a licensed professional counselor, who said their approach to solving the crisis is what makes this team different.
"When we are on scene, it can be for quite a few hours," Buseck said. "We are trying to really connect with people and identify what they are experiencing and support them and help point them in the direction they need to go, if they need help finding a therapist or need to go to the crisis center."
In the almost two weeks since the CCHAT team has been up and running in the county, they've had 14 calls, each averaging around two hours, not including follow-up calls. It's immediate proof of the need for a team like this within the county, with a goal set to help mitigate crises before they happen.
"We are trying to shift away from like, punitive interventions," Buseck said. "We try to get people connected to the resources they need."
That can mean someone is having a difficult time paying their bills or is out of groceries. If the CCHAT team gets involved, they can help connect them to places in the county that can help them, and stop a moment of desperation, whatever that looks like, from erupting later. That's the hope.
A crisis response team like this was suggested to Clear Creek County after a grand jury decision in 2020 when deputies were cleared of wrongdoing after shooting a mentally ill man but told better access to mental health resources needed to be available to prevent something like that in the future.
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Last year, Glass was shot and killed during a mental health crisis by a Clear Creek County deputy. While the record-breaking settlement stipulated that a team such as the CCHAT needed to be implemented in the next few years, Clear Creek County Commissioners had seen enough, and resurrected and fast-tracked plans earlier dismissed by the Sheriff's Office to get CCHAT into operation.
Right now the team only operates 40 hours a week, with the Jefferson Center for Mental Health helping to fill in the gaps when they are not on call. Eventually, the team would like to expand to seven members, with three teams of two to be able to cover calls 24/7, but that is an issue of funding right now.
