Community Outreach and Advocacy Team (COAT)

DESC COAT team members — DESC’s COAT team members.

The Community Outreach and Advocacy Team (COAT) is a multidisciplinary team within DESC offering behavioral health care to people who have been involved in the criminal legal system—specifically Trueblood Class members—or those who have been involved in legal competency.

COAT offers intensive, outreach-based support, often with multiple team members outreaching a participant each week. COAT’s focus is on working with people who have had difficulty in more traditional outpatient services.

COAT is a long-term program with no time limits on how long our clients can be enrolled.

Services offered:

Every COAT client has a primary case manager and meets with our psychiatric nurse practitioner at least once. They can receive the following supports as needed from additional team members:

Medication monitoring
Nursing support
Housing navigation
Master’s Level mental health therapy
Occupational therapy
Peer support
Case management
Substance use disorder counseling

COAT’s mission is to help individuals with severe mental health needs achieve stability and avoid cycles of incarceration or hospitalization by supporting them with long-term, community-based care!