Poulsbo CARES sees success in reducing 911 calls, ED visits

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 21, 2026

The Poulsbo Fire CARES (Community, Assistance, Referral, and Education Service) program began in 2021 as a partnership between the City of Poulsbo and the Poulsbo Fire Department using grant funding.

CARES aims to reduce the need for low acuity or non-emergent 911 calls and emergency department visits by providing resources and support, including for behavioral health and substance use disorders. CARES engages with individuals referred from fire or police agencies to assess an individual’s needs and provide supportive interventions, and connect them with existing area resources and services, Kitsap Fire CARES program administrator Julie Rogers said.

Since early 2026, Poulsbo CARES has transitioned from a firefighter/EMT or paramedic being paired with a behavioral health worker to behavioral health workers being able to respond to calls together independently. CARES teams are also co-response teams that can be called into the field and respond alongside first responders as needed, Rogers said.

“What we found, and what other programs have also found, is that we weren’t really making good use of those EMT or paramedicine services. So the majority of people who were seen as a follow-up event to 911 are not acute and not emergent, and so they don’t need that acute or emergent medical evaluation that an EMT or paramedic could provide,” she said.

For the first nine months of 2025, Poulsbo CARES reported a 79.9% reduction in 911 calls and a 76.97% reduction in emergency department visits. Poulsbo CARES provides services in Poulsbo, Bainbridge Island, and North Kitsap. Two metrics the program monitors include a reduction for both 911 activations and ED utilizations.

“Our reduction metrics demonstrate that we are consistently achieving over the last several years, about a 78% reduction in 911, and ED utilization for people who are receiving Poulsbo CARES interventions,” Rogers said. “In 2025, CARES conducted 1,946 encounters with community members and collateral contacts in support of connecting people to care. This averages out to approximately 10 contacts per day.”

Kitsap County is served by three separate CARES teams (Poulsbo Fire Department, Central Kitsap Fire & Rescue, and South Kitsap Fire & Rescue), which operate under the same program managed by Rogers, whose responsibilities include managing the three teams through interlocal agreements with local fire districts, applying for grant applications, budgeting, managing, and tracking data.

“So, Poulsbo Fire CARES is tasked with crisis intervention on scene, but a majority of what Poulsbo CARES does is a follow-up response to a 911 activation. So somebody calls 911, and the crews respond to the scene. If CARES is on duty during that time, and they think that CARES would be supportive on scene, then they may get called to that scene, but that only accounts for about 5% of what CARES does; 95% is a follow-up response to a 911 call,” she said.

PFD, CKF&R, and SKF&R operate under the CARES program and provide services to all Kitsap fire districts, Rogers said. “So we’re not all under one employer or one department, but we are all kind of governed by this interlocal agreement, this collaborative effort across the chiefs who’ve agreed to share resources and to help shape the practice in a way that makes sense and fully meets the community’s needs. And so our models are really good demonstrations of how rural communities can collaborate along a crisis care continuum to meet the community’s needs holistically without competing for those very competitive and finite grant dollars,” she said.

Funding for the program is provided by local fire districts and grant funding, Rogers said.

Rogers said CARES provides a wide variety of services to the community, including: behavioral health referrals, firearm locks and safes, medication lock boxes, a naloxone leave behind program, and naloxone training.

“Most of our check-ins are in person. So we’re really wanting to work with people in their home environments and get a good sense of what it is they need and what it is that they have the capacity to engage in. And then we’re staying with them…until whatever goals they’ve identified for themselves have been achieved. So our goal is to stabilize them,” she said.

Rogers said a common misconception about CARES is that members of the community can call CARES directly to access services, adding, “CARES is just six behavioral health workers across three teams serving a majority of the county, and doesn’t have capacity for self-referral, at least not yet. The referrals that we primarily get are from fire departments, law enforcement, and on a case-by-case basis, from other community service agencies for people whom we’ve worked with before,” she said.

CARES teams often get phone calls asking about community resources. “We, of course, will do telephone navigation, but the scope of our services has to really be focused on the people that are in the community, that are utilizing 911, and coming to the attention of fire/law enforcement, until we have the capacity to do more, which I hope we do,” she said. “I would never discourage anybody from calling. Please call us. We’re happy to provide any knowledge and navigation to the area agencies’ resources,” she said. Rogers also encourages members of the public who have frequently called 911 and have a lot of contact with EMS or law enforcement to ask for a CARES referral.

One current limitation, Rogers said, is that each CARES team consists of only two behavioral health workers, with a total of six spread across three teams countywide. The current operating hours are as follows: Poulsbo operates Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., — Central Kitsap Tuesday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., — and South Kitsap Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Rogers is hopeful that in the future, CARES will be able to expand behavioral health services available to the community, including the ability to respond 24/7, adding, “We’re just not, you’re there yet, but we will be,” she said. “So, really, we are a no-cost program that is reducing barriers to people accessing services in their community. We really want to enhance people’s ability to connect with services that keep them supported, and increase their health and increase their well-being.”