Transforming Behavioral Health on the Central Coast

How Care Connection and AMR Are Redefining Crisis Response in Santa Barbara County

As we recognize Mental Health Awareness Month, we believe it is important to highlight not only the growing need for behavioral health services in our communities, but also the importance of providing those services with dignity, compassion, and humanity.

Since 2019, Care Connection has been working alongside hospitals and healthcare

facilities throughout Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties to transform the way

behavioral health transportation is performed. What began as a mission to create a more compassionate and trauma-informed transportation model has since evolved into a regional partnership with American Medical Response (AMR), helping reshape behavioral health response across the Central Coast.

While our formal partnership with AMR launched in June 2025, the foundation of this work was built years earlier through a commitment to improving patient experience, reducing emergency department strain, and creating safer outcomes for vulnerable individuals in crisis.

A Different Approach to Behavioral Health Transport

Historically, behavioral health transports often relied heavily on law enforcement or highly restrictive ambulance environments. In many cases, patients experiencing mental health crises were transported in police vehicles or under conditions that could unintentionally increase fear, anxiety, and trauma.

At Care Connection, we believed there was a better way.

Our model is centered around a trauma-informed, human-centered approach that prioritizes:

• Compassion without judgment

• De-escalation and emotional safety

• Respectful patient interactions

• Dignified transportation environments

• Specialized behavioral health training for drivers and staff

  
  

Every Care Connection driver receives trauma-informed de-escalation training and is taught to approach every patient with empathy, patience, and understanding.

Because the reality is simple: you never know the struggles someone may be facing. Every individual deserves to be treated with the same kindness, dignity, and respect we would want for our own family members.

Regional Impact Through Partnership

Today, our partnership with AMR plays a critical role in supporting hospitals, emergency departments, first responders, and behavioral health systems throughout Santa Barbara County.

Together, we provide specialized behavioral health transportation support that:

• Reduces emergency department wait times

• Improves patient access to psychiatric care and placement

• Frees up AMR emergency resources for 911 response

• Helps hospitals improve patient throughput and bed availability

• Creates a safer and more compassionate experience for patients in crisis

  
  

From June 2025 through March 2026, the program completed 398 behavioral health transports across a service area spanning all of Santa Barbara County with operations centered in Santa Maria.

Why 119 Minutes Matters

One of the most important measures of our impact is response time.

Our average response time during this period was 119.68 minutes. That means, on average, in under two hours from the moment a transport request is received, we have a driver arriving for pickup.

In many situations, our teams respond in an hour or less—often significantly faster.

To put that into perspective, behavioral health transportation historically could take 8 to 12+ hours in many cases.

At 119 minutes, we have reduced response times by approximately 75–85%, cutting hours off the amount of time vulnerable patients spend waiting in emergency departments for placement and treatment.

Another way to look at it:

Under two hours across two counties is not simply “good performance”—it is regional rapid-response behavioral health transportation.

At 398 completed transports, those reduced wait times represent well over 2,000–3,000 patient waiting hours avoided compared to historic norms.

That is why we are incredibly proud of the 119-minute average. It reflects far more than transportation efficiency—it reflects a transformation in access to care.

Looking Ahead

Mental health challenges impact every community, every family, and every demographic and the need for compassionate behavioral health support continues to grow. Together with American Medical Response and our healthcare partners, we are helping create a behavioral health transportation model that is faster, safer, more compassionate, and more effective for both patients and hospitals.

Most importantly, we believe how we treat people during moments of crisis truly matters. Because at Care Connection, transportation is more than getting someone from Point A to Point B, we know healing begins with human connection.