The Greater Baltimore Regional Integrated Crisis System (GBRICS) serves children and adults experiencing a behavioral health crisis. The project will invest $45 million over five years to transform behavioral health response crisis services in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, and Howard County in Maryland.
The four jurisdictions with a combined population of 1.94 million, account for about 30% of the state’s population, and account for 45% of statewide ED visits, with behavioral health as a primary diagnosis
The initial funding investment for GBRICS was made available by the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission’s https://hscrc.maryland.gov Regional Partnership Catalyst Grant Program.
The plan is to create a functioning Behavioral Health Crisis Response System that will resolve crisis situations quickly, meet people and make them feel comfortable, provide appropriate care and support, reduce ED use, and hospitalization.
The plan will provide:
- A centralized Care Traffic Control CTC) System to help respond to people not only experiencing a behavioral health crisis, but also talk to people struggling with substance abuse use
- A hotline number to connect to the CTC for the region
- A single hub that dispatches Mobile Crisis Teams using real time GPS tracking 24/7
- Stakeholders and Local Behavioral Health Authorities to have real time access to data
- A regional hotline to support referral tracking
- Dashboard reporting on bed availability and open appointments
- Walk-in/virtual crisis services
- Scheduling appointments for follow-up care,
- Community engagement, and outreach,
- Non-profit multi-stakeholder oversight.
Planning for the integrated crisis response system to begin in 2021, will be developed in phases with GBRICS expected to be in place by the end of 2023. The GBRICS Partnership was developed by a broad coalition of 17 hospitals, four local behavioral health authorities, many behavioral health experts, and community leaders.
GBRICS’ planning development begins in 2021, by establishing GBRICS Council to support implementation and sustainability for the expansion of behavioral health services and crisis response resources in Baltimore plus with three surrounding counties due to start in the 3rd year of the project.
Go to https://hscrc.maryland.gov/Documents/Modernization for the Greater Baltimore Regional Integrated Crisis System (G-BRICS) Proposal published July 2020.