FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Prestera Health Services Joins National Effort to Expand Community First Response
Huntington, WV — November 4, 2025 — Prestera Health Services is proud to announce that Ken Fitzwater, MA, LPC, Chief Clinical Officer, has helped shape a new national framework for how communities respond to behavioral health and social-service crises.
As a commissioner on the Expanding First Response Commission, convened by the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, Fitzwater joined twenty other experts from across the country to release the Commission’s September 2025 recommendations—a set of state-level strategies designed to strengthen and sustain community-responder programs nationwide.
These programs, which pair behavioral-health professionals and trained community members with emergency dispatch systems, are changing the way local governments handle non-violent 911 calls involving mental health, substance use, or housing instability. Instead of relying solely on law enforcement or EMS, community-responder teams provide immediate care, connection to services, and follow-up support.
The September 2025 recommendations urge states to move beyond short-term pilot funding and instead establish sustainable, long-term investment streams for community-responder programs. They also emphasize the importance of workforce development, calling for standardized training, credentialing, and professional identity for responders—many of whom bring lived experience or deep roots in the communities they serve.
Another focus is dispatch integration. The Commission advises states to modernize 911 and 988 systems so calls are properly triaged and routed to community responders when appropriate, ensuring coordination among law enforcement, EMS, and behavioral-health teams.
To measure progress, the report recommends that states require data collection and evaluation frameworks tracking outcomes, costs, and equity metrics. Evidence from these programs can then guide resource allocation and help scale successful models.
Equity and collaboration are also central themes. The Commission highlights the need for partnerships between community organizations, behavioral-health providers, first responders, and local governments, ensuring that programs reflect the voices of people historically underserved or disproportionately affected by policing.
The CSG Justice Center launched the Expanding First Response Commission in 2023 to develop evidence-based guidance for states interested in creating or scaling non-police crisis-response options. Its 2025 briefs—covering funding, workforce, data, dispatch, and partnerships—are now being shared with policymakers, law-enforcement agencies, and behavioral-health leaders across the United States.
More information, including the full report and practical toolkits for state and local agencies, is available at https://csgjusticecenter.org/expanding-first-response.
Media Contact:
Amber Miller
Marketing & Development Manager
Prestera Health Services
amber.miller@prestera.org | (304)525.7851 x 1514
www.prestera.org