Outreach team provides behavioral health support for Ontario residents

The Ontario Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST) mobile unit provides assistance, education and support to residents in the Ontario community.

In 2015, the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) partnered with various key agencies to place DBH crisis triage staff in underserved areas throughout San Bernardino County. DBH selected agencies – known as “points of access,” such as law enforcement, hospital emergency departments and college campus police – to assist consumers experiencing a mental health crisis by providing support that links them to services in lieu of accessing unnecessary emergency services whenever appropriate. From this partnership, DBH identified the need to further these services and city integration when responding to crises.

The Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST) was launched on July 1, 2021, within the Fontana Police Department and is one of the first of its kind in the nation. The COAST model consists of a multidisciplinary team with a crisis response mobile unit, which includes a behavioral health professional from the Triage Engagement and Support Team (TEST), a firefighter and their assigned therapy canine, and a plain-clothed specialty trained law enforcement officer that respond in the field to the behavioral health needs of residents during specific crisis encounters.

In the summer of 2023, COAST was developed in the city of Ontario.

The purpose of the COAST model is to provide residents with rapid access to crisis triage in a non-threatening manner. Representatives from these agencies, along with a therapy canine, go out into the field as a team, providing a more effective and efficient response to behavioral health crisis encounters in the community.

“COAST is innovation and collaboration at its finest. This is an exciting opportunity to integrate our county services and look toward how we can work with other communities to provide behavioral health resources,” said Behavioral Health Director Dr. Georgina Yoshioka.

The COAST collaboration provides a more specialized response to individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis, enhancing service quality, mitigating the potential for unattended negative consequences, and providing services in the least restrictive environment.

To engage with the community in a non-threatening manner, the COAST team members, including the police officer, wear civilian clothing. This assists in connecting the officers and the citizens they serve.

The Ontario Police Department receives about 500 to 700 calls per day. Approximately one out of every five calls are mental health related. In fiscal year 2023-2024, Ontario COAST diverted 99 percent of crisis encounters from unnecessary hospitalizations and holds.

Currently, the department has COAST teams operating within the San Bernardino Police Department, Fontana Police Department and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Central Station.

Additional County Update News – Feb. 27, 2025