Corvallis, OR

Oregon State University (OSU) Assist – Corvallis, OR

March 7, 2025

OSU Assist is a multidisciplinary support team that provides compassionate mobile crisis response and wraparound services for people facing extenuating circumstances at the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis, OR. Launched in September 2022, it is one of the first community responder programs operating at a university, addressing mental health calls and other related concerns. The team responds to eligible calls in lieu of the OSU Department of Public Safety, but may also operate in a co-response capacity when law enforcement presence is deemed necessary for safety. OSU Assist is available every day from 1:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. PT, serving students, faculty, and staff on the campus of over 33,000 students.

The following information outlines OSU Assist’s efforts since its inception; it follows the sections of the toolkit. Readers can connect to other parts of the toolkit by clicking the headers for more details.

Community Engagement and Collaboration

After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, OSU community members began a series of dialogues on how students, faculty, and staff envision public safety. Community members requested an alternative response team to address and resolve matters related to mental health, housing insecurity, survivor support, and more.

To move this initiative forward, the vice provost for Student Affairs and members of the Office of the Dean of Students created an advisory committee consisting of representatives from key campus offices and students. This group met monthly during the first four years of development to provide input at the outset and now meets quarterly to continue advising on the growth and progress of the program.

Prior to the launch, the advisory committee also held several campus forums and distributed an engagement survey to gather insight on the needs and desires of the campus. This targeted outreach informed the training, protocols, and partnerships needed to establish the program and tailor it to the needs of the campus.

OSU Assist now serves a large percentage of first-year students living in residence halls and engages regularly with resident directors to build trust and coordinated care.

OSU Assist team members regularly meet with county crisis team members, local service organizations, and emergency department professionals to build recognition and crisis response expectations.

Needs Assessment

To inform call volumes and types of calls, OSU Assist reviewed campus dispatch data of the two years prior to its launch to better understand when the best initial operational hours should be and the types of calls that could be diverted to the mobile crisis team.

Throughout the first two years of operations, key staff, such as the assistant dean of students and the director of Student Care Services, reviewed and debriefed all calls that were dispatched to determine ongoing training requirements, any needed changes in protocols, and decision making related to when and why to divert calls to OSU Assist.

Call Triaging

As an ongoing practice, OSU Assist and the OSU Department of Public Safety meet regularly to debrief calls and to identify practices that went well and areas of growth. These meetings help to build and maintain trust among the first responders, which is particularly useful when they are co-responding on a scene.

During its inception, the campus dispatch manager and OSU Assist leadership developed a call triage guide that is regularly reviewed and updated to mirror best practices with a commitment to dispatching the right resources at the right time.

OSU Assist responders are integrated into the same communication channels as the departments of public safety, fire, and emergency medical services to ensure barrier free contact to dispatch the most appropriate team. Because of this, the OSU campus community is asked to call dispatch (911 or 541-737-7000) to minimize confusion on who people in crisis should call for help, then dispatch determines who to direct them to.

Certain offices have access to OSU Assist’s direct line based upon their role on campus and assessment expertise. Examples include OSU’s Counseling & Psychological Services, Student Health Services, and the Survivor support team.

Program Staffing

The OSU Assist program is located within the Office of the Dean of Students. Program responders work closely with their department counterparts, Student Care case managers, to provide ongoing support after a crisis call. They can also refer people to a variety of campus resources, including Counseling & Psychological Services, Student Health Services, the Basic Needs Center, and Survivor Advocacy.

OSU Assist employs responders with a variety of crisis backgrounds, including clinical and non-clinical experience. Current responders have previous experience in child protective services, survivor advocacy, crisis call centers, immigration support, and county mental health support. All team members are trained as privileged survivor advocates, meaning that they are not bound by mandated reporting requirements and have certain confidentiality protections.

There are currently four primary responders and a supervisor, who serves in the rotation as needed. OSU Assist hopes to add four more personnel through a practicum experience offered to students getting their master’s degree in social work at neighboring universities.

During operational hours, teams of two responders are on shift to respond to calls. The team’s schedule mirrors the Department of Public Safety’s rotating Pitman schedule. This alignment ensures consistency between the teams, enhances collaboration, and provides opportunities for joint briefings on calls.

Responders are provided campus-owned housing as part of their compensation, which allows them to quickly respond to crisis calls while in the office or at home.

Use of Data to Inform Decision-Making

OSU Assist continues to meet regularly with students and faculty in focus groups to gather insight on the program’s strengths and areas of growth. Additionally, a campus-wide survey was distributed in Spring 2024 to learn more about the community’s knowledge of OSU Assist, their trust in calling 911 to reach OSU Assist, and their understanding of when or why they would call for help.

These focus groups and surveys have informed marketing considerations, identity revamping, strategies to continue to build trust, and more.

OSU Assist uses the same case management database as many other OSU offices to ensure that coordination, ranging from crisis response to connections to long-term resources, is successful.

The program collects data to analyze various performance indicators including:

- Number of OSU Assist calls, either as the primary responders or as part of a co-response;

- Number and types of referrals made to resources;

- The types of issues or concerns the caller needed support with;

- Location and duration of calls;

- Self-identified demographic information; and

- The caller’s identity (whether student, faculty, staff, campus office, etc.).

From Academic Year 2022–2023 to Academic Year 2023–2024, calls addressed by OSU Assist have doubled, illustrating the integrated practices for dispatchers and law enforcement to best triage the most appropriate resources for each call. Increased knowledge of the program has also led to more students and staff calling 911 for assistance.

Safety and Wellness

OSU Assist responders receive four weeks of extensive scenario-based and on-the-job training to ensure they can use best practices that keep themselves and the people they serve safe. This training involves first response methods and information on trauma-informed care, implicit biases, the dispatch system, survivor support, de-escalation techniques, mental health assessments, and more.

OSU Assist’s embedded communication with the Department of Public Safety allows for responders to call for assistance immediately if there is an imminent threat. When they partner for a co-response effort, the teams often huddle prior to engaging in a call to assess which first responder will take lead, and which may standby for support nearby. This practice allows for OSU Assist responders to engage with individuals alone, even when there may be a potential threat, without escalating the circumstances with a law enforcement encounter.

OSU Assist responders do not engage in follow-up care but do refer people to the Student Care case manager team for continuity of resource support. This practice keeps responders’ work specific to addressing immediate needs and does not add case load expectations that may increase risk of burnout.

Financial Sustainability

OSU Assist is funded through the university’s tuition budget. This funding infrastructure was intentionally designed so that all OSU community members (students, faculty, guests, etc.) can access this support on the campus.

After the first year of implementation, OSU Assist was granted additional funding to add a fourth responder to the team.

The team is currently applying for new grant funding in hopes of adding a paid internship opportunity and additional case management support.