Mobile Crisis Services Education Series Supports Youth Behavioral Health Providers, Facilitates Increased Appropriate Mobile Crisis Connections
Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Services’ Milwaukee Mobile Crisis Team (MMC) is an on-call team of clinicians who provide services to individuals experiencing behavioral health crises, 24/7, by phone and in person throughout the community. In 2025, the Milwaukee County Crisis Line received over 22,000 calls (414-257-7222) and provided over 8,200 mobile responses to individuals of all ages across Milwaukee County. Eighteen percent of the mobile services were for youth under 18 years and included referral sources such as school staff, professional supports, or youth and families directly. Cross-sector partners made concentrated efforts in 2025 to increase the number of youths served and to ensure the resource is well-known and accessed appropriately. This included a Mobile Crisis Services Education Series, specifically for youth behavioral health providers and adjacent stakeholders such as schools and child welfare, led by the MMC leadership team in collaboration with the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership (MHCP) Youth Behavioral Health (YBH) Care Delivery Redesign Committee.
The educational series sought to increase provider awareness and understanding of the expanded MMC services and gather feedback from behavioral health and adjacent systems to inform continuous quality improvement and crisis redesign efforts.
“The development of a connection point between our youth behavioral health providers and the mobile crisis services team has both real-time and long-term value,” said Lauren Hubbard, Director of Community Crisis Services. “It allowed us to expand access to these services for youth and families by educating our providers and support systems, but also opened up a pathway for continued monitoring and improvement from a cross-sector perspective.”
The series has had high cross-system engagement with over 600 registrants across the five 2025 sessions. A recorded version of the session will be made available to partner organizations for ongoing staff training and awareness raising in 2026. Key insights were also shared broadly across MHCP behavioral health coalitions. Following these sessions, MMC will jointly monitor youth MMC service use relative to program capacity with MHCP behavioral health coalition members using a newly developed coalition dashboard. Into 2026, the YBH Committee continues to work to improve provider awareness about a wide array of youth behavioral health and adjacent services.
“There are so many moving pieces in our behavioral health and crisis system. Having a regular cadence of information sharing and data review across partners can make the difference in what a youth does or doesn’t receive in a high time of need,” said Jessica Small, President, Aurora Psychiatric Hospital, Wisconsin Behavioral Health Operations, Behavioral Health Executive Committee Member, MHCP. “What started as informational briefings has developed into a broader strategy for how we engage with MMC services. Cross-sector partnerships like this one, and the willingness to be transparent and collaborative what it takes to best serve our community.”
The Milwaukee Health Care Partnership (MHCP) Youth Behavioral Health (YBH) Care Delivery Redesign Committee is a cross-system leadership body convened to strengthen and redesign the youth behavioral health care continuum across Milwaukee County. The committee brings together public and private system leaders (including health systems, county and state agencies, service providers, advocates, and community agency partners) to provide strategic oversight, align resources, and advance a more coordinated, equitable, and family-centered care continuum for youth from early childhood through young adulthood. Through shared accountability and collaboration, the YBH committee focuses on improving access, integration, and outcomes for youth experiencing mental and behavioral health needs and their families.
To be connected to the broader 2026 MHCP behavioral health provider briefings, please contact Kate Graham at kgraham@mkehcp.org.