AWARE takes pride in serving the most vulnerable citizens in our state. As a Mental Health Center and a residential services provider, this means that we must be available to our clients at all times—24/7. To meet this need, all of our teams are trained in crisis response and de-escalation. Every person served has an individual plan of care that includes how to help the person in the case of a crisis. AWARE created a tiered level of response to ensure that colleagues responding to crisis have access to help and support all the way up to the CEO. During regular business hours, needs or crisis events are handled by the client’s team. After 5 p.m., our teams share the responsibility of caring for clients by providing after hours on call services.
In our residential homes, program managers and residential coordinators serve on call shifts for the homes in their communities. They are supported by program directors, service administrators, service directors and service-specific clinicians.
For outpatient services, during the hours of 5 p.m. -8 a.m., our statewide network of licensed clinicians serve on call shifts for one week, Wednesday-Wednesday. Our clients are given our 1-800 crisis phone number and that number is routed to the on call clinician. During their on call week, clinicians respond to calls immediately and have support from supervisors and the clinical director.
At AWARE, even with well-crafted crisis plans, crisis response is and must be a team effort. Planning creates consistency and efficient response. Diversity of ideas and abilities allows for effective response when a crisis occurs that is outside of the plan or the person served is experiencing for the first time. And, just as important as responding to a person we serve, teaming and reviewing how we responded and the outcomes of the response allows us to support our team members during and after. AWARE’s crisis response system shows that truly no one is alone and no crisis is too hard to manage if we just reach out and make the call!