What Responder Support Services does

Responder Support Services (RSS), founded February 2018 by Rick Baker, operates the first outpatient behavioral health clinic in the United States dedicated exclusively to serving first responders (firefighters, law enforcement, EMS, and 911 dispatch). The company is headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, with additional clinic locations in Waynesville and Boone and embedded clinician programs at 22 agencies across Western North Carolina.

RSS delivers care through two integrated channels: an Embedded Behavioral Health (EBH) model, in which licensed clinicians are placed on-site at fire departments, sheriff's offices, EMS agencies, and dispatch centers 1-4 days per week, and two first-responder-only outpatient clinics. Core clinical offerings include evidence-based PTSD treatment (typically 8-12 sessions), sleep disturbance and hyper-vigilance interventions, end-of-career distress support, individual psychotherapy, substance abuse assessment, a Recovery Group, and clinical consultation for peer support teams. In 2024 the company added a Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) program for treatment-resistant depression and PTSD, and began offering per-incident crisis response on an as-needed basis to agencies and federal programs (USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management).

Revenue is generated almost entirely through managed-services contracts with municipal and federal government agencies, supplemented by individual outpatient services and per-incident professional services engagements. Pricing is contract-negotiated rather than publicly disclosed; an illustrative anchor is the Asheville City Council contract at approximately $300,000 over three years for embedded support to Police and Fire four days per week. Growth is described as 50% annually (except 2022) achieved entirely through organic referrals and demonstrated outcomes, with no dedicated sales force. RSS operates as a privately held North Carolina LLC, has no external institutional funding, and reports 30+ clinical and administrative staff supporting 30+ agencies.

Name

Responder Support Services

Legal name

Responder Support Services, LLC

Website

https://respondersupport.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Responder Support Services is a privately held, North Carolina-based outpatient behavioral health clinic dedicated exclusively to first responders, delivering embedded licensed clinicians on-site at fire, police, EMS, and dispatch agencies and operating first-responder-only outpatient clinics in Asheville and Boone.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Behavioral Health Services for First Responders

NAICS

Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers (621420)

SIC

Services-Specialty Outpatient Facilities, Nec (8093)

akta.pro primary industry

Peer Support, Recovery Coaching & Sober Living Services (HLAFACAN)

Keywords

• Behavioral health services
• First responder support
• PTSD treatment
• Embedded clinical care
• Outpatient mental health

Headquarters

HQ city

Asheville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Agency Embedded Contracts: RSS embeds clinicians within agencies (fire departments, sheriff's offices, EMS) on a contracted basis - typically 1-4 days per week per department. Agencies contract for regular service delivery within their structure. This is the primary revenue driver.
2. Government Contracts: Contracts with municipal governments (e.g., Asheville City Council approved expansion to nearly $300,000 for a three-year contract). Services provided to police and fire departments 4 days per week each.
3. Per-Incident Services: Agencies can also work with RSS on a per-incident or as-needed basis for crisis response, facilitated discussions following major events, or clinical consultation.
4. Outpatient Clinical Services: Individual responders (and their spouses/partners) can access outpatient services directly. Services include individual psychotherapy, trauma treatment, substance abuse assessment, stress management, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Responder Support Services provides behavioral health treatment specifically designed for first responders, using an Embedded Behavioral Health (EBH) model that places clinicians inside partner agencies alongside a network of outpatient clinics in Western North Carolina. Services include PTSD treatment, sleep disturbance care, hyper-vigilance intervention, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), and recovery group programming.

Product overview

Responder Support Services operates as a network of outpatient behavioral health clinics serving exclusively first responders. The company offers a unified service portfolio centered on the Embedded Behavioral Health (EBH) model, which provides on-site clinical support at first responder agencies. Core clinical services include PTSD treatment, trauma therapy, sleep disturbance treatment, stress management, substance abuse assessment and treatment, and the specialized Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) Program. Services are delivered through individual psychotherapy, the Recovery Group, clinical consultation for peer teams, and agency/department integration programs. The EBH model serves as the primary delivery mechanism, with individual services (PTSD, sleep, hyper-vigilance, career distress, substance abuse) and specialized programs (KAP, Recovery Group) offered both embedded within agencies and at outpatient clinic locations in Asheville and Boone, NC.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Embedded Behavioral Health (EBH) Program Clinicians are embedded directly inside partner first-responder organizations (fire departments, law enforcement, EMS, federal agencies) to deliver on-site behavioral health treatment and support to personnel.
• Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinics Network of outpatient clinics in Asheville, Waynesville, and Boone, North Carolina providing ongoing behavioral health care to first responders and their families beyond the embedded on-site model.
• PTSD Treatment Specialized post-traumatic stress disorder treatment program designed for first responders experiencing operational trauma.
• Sleep Disturbance Treatment Behavioral health treatment targeting sleep disturbance conditions common among first responders.
• Hyper-Vigilance Intervention Clinical intervention program addressing hyper-vigilance symptoms characteristic of first-responder occupational stress.
• Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy program offered to first responders as a specialized treatment modality.
• Recovery Group Program Group-based recovery program for first responders participating in behavioral health treatment.

Quantifiable outcome

• PTSD treatment can be completed in 8-12 sessions
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Cordico (Lexipol Wellness): Cordico offers a first-responder wellness platform — an embedded behavioral health and resource app for law enforcement, fire, and EMS — directly competing for the same employer-purchaser budgets and responder user base as RSS.
• Boulder Crest Foundation: Boulder Crest operates first-responder and veteran resilience and post-traumatic growth programs, including training and retreats, addressing overlapping responder PTSD and resilience needs with RSS.
• Warrior Care Network (Wounded Warrior Project): A consortium delivering evidence-based PTSD treatment to post-9/11 veterans and first responders; competitively targets the same trauma-cared responder population with similar protocol-driven treatment claims.

Broad incumbents

• Lyra Health: Enterprise mental-health benefits platform providing outpatient therapy, coaching, and crisis support to large employers — increasingly used by public agencies as an alternative or supplement to embedded programs.
• Spring Health: Global mental-health platform offering therapy, coaching, and medication management to employer populations, including public-sector clients; a likely alternative buyer for the same agency budgets.
• Talkspace: Online therapy enterprise serving employer and payor markets; competes for telehealth-delivered behavioral health spend that public agencies may allocate between Talkspace and on-site embedded models.
• Acadia Healthcare: Large national behavioral-health operator with a broad treatment and outpatient footprint; the type of large incumbent that purchased Baker's prior practice and could expand into a responder-focused vertical.

Regional players

• Quest Behavioral Health (VCU/Ramsay / regional behavioral health operators): Regional outpatient mental-health practices that occasionally serve first responders; useful private-comparable benchmarks for valuation in U.S. states other than North Carolina.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/rickbfromvt/videos
• Facebookfacebook.com/respondersupport
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/responder-support-services-rss

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Responder Support Services