“Correspondent” is a term you hear more and more around King County. This is the concept of police and firefighters working with mental health professionals to address certain calls.

As in the recent case in Bothell, a mother called the police because her teenage son had run away from home. Bothell Police Officer Jenna Shannon said she came out after speaking with her family at her home.

“My son had apparently been dealing with the police five days in a row, so he wasn’t very excited about me being there and didn’t want to talk to him today.

Svetlana Kirilova is a mental health professional for the North Sound RADAR Navigator program. Her five city police departments in North King County have jointly launched an initiative to fund positions like hers. Kirilova said she felt threatened and she repeatedly accompanies police to calls from people in need, like one elderly woman who called 911.

Kirilova found that women’s living conditions were getting worse.

“She was sleeping between the sofa and the coffee table,” Kirillova said. “She wasn’t eating properly”

Kirilova spent months communicating with the woman’s family, who eventually helped her move to a welfare facility.

The RADAR Navigator program has several features. One is for navigators to develop response plans for executives on how best to approach people.

Program manager Brook Buettner says he also warns executives to: No To tell.

“Sometimes it can be really simple, like, ‘Don’t call your stepfather your father,'” she said.

These notes are available to officers through on-board computer systems in five partner cities in North King County: Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Bothell, Kenmore, and Kirkland.

The program has some limitations. The Mental Health Navigator is currently only available during certain hours. Also, you must be accompanied by a police officer.

But Buettner said more funding next year could allow Navigator to expand into nights and weekends and have a team without police to answer calls.

Bothell resident Jenny Marker says she welcomes the progress. In recent years, Marker says he called 911 frequently to deal with the trauma and sensory overload while raising young children. However, she feared and distrusted the police.

“I appreciate and respect their role, but I am deeply afraid of them and their power,” Marker said. ”

Two years ago, Bothell police officers brought a mental health navigator to see Marker. The navigator helped address her immediate needs, including getting enough food and diapers for her family in her marker, and then linked her to mental health resources.

“I have to tell you, my life has changed exponentially for the better having a radar program,” she said.

Now, she said if she needed to speak to someone she would call the 988 mental health hotline. She is also a member of the Community Advisory Board of the She Radar She program.

Bothell Police Chief Ken Suberlich helped launch the Navigator program. He said his officers love it and it’s a game-changer for the department. It’s that there aren’t many places.

“It’s like having nurses and doctors but no hospitals,” he said. To”

But they recently got some good news on that front. has been approved.