{"id":443992,"date":"2026-09-22T12:04:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443992\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:04:20","slug":"el-paso-county-renews-crisis-intervention-partnership-with-ehn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443992\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso County renews crisis intervention partnership with EHN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">EL PASO, Texas (<a data-ylk=\"slk:KTSM;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 El Paso County Commissioners Court approved an agreement worth up to $513,689 to continue a crisis intervention partnership between the El Paso County Sheriff&#8217;s Office and Emergence Health Network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Crisis Intervention Team, or CIT, responds to people experiencing a mental health crisis and those with a diagnosed or suspected mental illness or intellectual disability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Under the program, EHN clinicians co-deploy in the same vehicle with law-enforcement officers when the team is called to a crisis in the community. The officer and clinician work together to de-escalate the situation, screen the individual and determine the appropriate next step.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The response can give people alternatives to being taken to jail or an emergency room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It&#8217;s very important that the response is strategized, that there is a trained effort, or a trained competent response, so the situations don&#8217;t escalate,&#8221; Deputy County Administrator Joel Bishop said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve saved almost $4 million since its inception, so there is a cost savings to the community,&#8221; Chrystal Davis, EHN&#8217;s chief operating officer, said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not only about the cost savings. It&#8217;s about serving those individuals in the right setting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The newly approved agreement is a renewal of the existing partnership, not an expansion. EHN said the County funding directly supports the clinicians who respond alongside sheriff&#8217;s deputies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The partnership between EHN and the Sheriff&#8217;s Office began in April 2021. EHN said the team assisted about 4,000 people between 2021 and August 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">EHN also operates a separate crisis intervention partnership with the El Paso Police Department, which began in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The County&#8217;s renewed agreement with EHN begins Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 El Paso County Commissioners Court approved an agreement worth up to $513,689 to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[63721,153323,138,1060,140,139,498,70409,4536],"class_list":["post-443992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-crisis-intervention","tag-ehn","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-county","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-ktsm","tag-mental-health-crisis","tag-partnership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}