Dec. 26—There is a firefighters’ SUV responding to crises across Spokane, but it does not fight fires. Inside is a mental health counselor tasked with helping Spokanites under mental duress.
Jordan Ellinwood is a unique first responder who ensures those in medical emergencies do not only get the physical care they need, but the mental health support that might prevent the next emergency.
The Spokane Fire Department’s Behavioral Response Unit is a two-person team. One paramedic and a mental health professional respond to emergency calls like drug overdoses. The paramedic provides medical care, but Ellinwood can make sure patients get treatment that may help them in the long term.
“I try to get these small wins where I can get someone the right resources and the right services. Because the world itself can be pretty inequitable,” she said.
A native of North Carolina, Ellinwood grew up wanting to be a lawyer. But while studying for her undergraduate degree, a mentor in that field told her she could serve the underprivileged in better ways.
“The system isn’t broken. I think it works exactly how it was meant to. But that doesn’t mean the system was always set up to help people,” she said. “I have always been a justice-oriented person. And I hope that by helping people navigate this system, I can help bring them justice.”
After receiving a graduate degree in counseling from Gonzaga, Ellinwood has worked in the Behavioral Response Unit for the past 21/2 years. She does not have medical training and does not work for the Fire Department. She is contracted out as a first responder by Frontier Behavioral Health, a nonprofit providing inpatient and outpatient mental healthcare in Spokane.
Frontier Chief Operating Officer Jan Downing said Ellinwood has “definitely made a difference” in Spokane.
“Jordan can determine that there are signs of a mental health issue and can then divert the person to more appropriate resources in our community. This reduces health care costs for the person and allows emergency departments to care for people with emergent medical issues while we appropriately care for people in our community,” Downing said. “Jordan’s expertise in behavioral health and her compassion and commitment to serve people, has resulted in her successfully diverting people to more appropriate mental health support in our community when medical treatment is not the primary need.”
In Ellinwood’s view, the public often have many misconceptions of who she treats.
“They think that they can look at somebody in a certain location in town wearing certain attire and maybe acting a certain way, and they would assume that that’s exactly who I work with, and they could be right. But what they don’t know is I go to calls everywhere and I see people from every walk of life,” she said.
Every person in Spokane could “easily become” someone she treats, she said.
“It could easily be me or you or anyone. We’re all a lot closer to them than we are the president.”
Emergency responses by paramedics are usually meant to be fast. The patient is brought to the emergency room as quickly as possible, if needed. But the Behavioral Response Unit’s calls often take much longer. For someone in a mental health crisis or in the throes of addiction, the emergency room may not be the best place. It could be full, and it may not connect the patient with services that help in the long-term.
“I’m allowed to spend as much time as I need on a call. For other first responders, they have to get going to help others and can only bring the patient to the hospital. But there is often more to the story. Sometimes people need a higher level of care,” she said.
The unit responded to an overdose call last week that lasted over two hours. The majority of that time was not spent providing medical treatment or speaking with the patient. Over an hour of the call had Ellinwood on the phone with different substance use treatment facilities in the area.
“I was advocating to send her to a facility she can go straight in to get help immediately, versus going to the ER with the gamble of being admitted or not. People think that if you go to the hospital, it will have to keep you if you have a problem. I know that’s just not always the case,” she said.
That day, Ellinwood was not able to get the woman a placement, and they brought her to the hospital. That is common, according to the counselor. Soon, the unit was on to the next call of the day.
Paramedic Jordan Johnson is Ellinwood’s former partner in the unit. Though trained to heal a patient’s physical body, he would be unable to provide the same care that Ellinwood does.
“The biggest difference is the resources available to us. If I am working my regular shift on the fire engine and someone is going through a mental health crisis, our only option is to call her if she’s not on the call. Otherwise, we just go to the emergency room. It is not ideal. But it works. But she knows how to talk to the patients. She has all the resources, all the contacts to get them the help they need,” he said.
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Firefighter Mandy Harvey, who is being trained as the Behavioral Response Unit’s new paramedic, said seeing her new partner work has been “pretty darn cool.”
“When I usually go on a call, we are just there to mitigate the medical emergency,” Harvey said. “Jordan provides so many more options that can save a life just as easily.”
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