National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

Knowledge Informing Transformation 

National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care 

Best Practice Toolkit 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

Knowledge Informing Transformation 

Acknowledgments 

This document was produced for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 

Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

Public Domain Notice 

All material appearing in this document is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied 

without permission from SAMHSA. Citation of the source is appreciated. However, this 

publication may not be reproduced or distributed for a fee without the specific, written 

authorization from the Office of Communications, SAMHSA, HHS. 

Electronic Access and Copies of Publication 

This publication may be downloaded or ordered at www.samhsa.gov. Or, please call 

SAMHSA’s Health Information Network at 1-877-SAMHSA-7 (1-877-726-4727) (English and 

Español). 

Originating Office Center for Mental Health Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 

Administration 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857 

Printed 2020 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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The National Guidelines for Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit advances national guidelines in 

crisis care within a toolkit that supports program design, development, implementation and 

continuous quality improvement efforts. It is intended to help mental health authorities, agency 

administrators, service providers, state and local leaders think through and develop the structure 

of crisis systems that meet community needs. This toolkit includes distinct sections for: 

 Defining national guidelines in crisis care; 

 Tips for implementing care that aligns with national guidelines; and 

 Tools to evaluate alignment of systems to national guidelines. 

In preparing this information, we could think of no one better to advise you than people who 

have worked successfully with crisis systems of care. Therefore, we based the information in this 

toolkit on the experience of veteran crisis system leaders and administrators as well as the 

individuals and families who have relied on these supports on their worst days. The interviews in 

thisreport’s addendum showcase the diversity and richness of this expertise and experience.

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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Table of Contents 

Forward ............................................................................................Page 7 

Introduction .....................................................................................Page 8 

Overview ........................................................................................Page 10 

Core Services and Guidelines for Care ...........................................Page 12 

Core Elements .......................................................................... Page 13 

Crisis Call Hub Services .............................................................. Page 14 

Mobile Crisis Team Services ....................................................... Page 18 

Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services.................................... Page 22 

Additional Elements of a System of Care ..................................... Page 24 

Crisis System Coordination......................................................... Page 25 

Essential Principles....................................................................Page 26 

Unique Challenges Rural and Frontier............................................Page 35 

Funding Crisis Care .........................................................................Page 36 

Crisis Service Coding.......................................................................Page 39 

Assessing Adequacy of System Capacity ........................................Page 42 

Care for All Populations Throughout Lifespan .............................. Page 42 

Crisis Resource Need Calculator ................................................. Page 42 

Indicators of Insufficient Capacity...............................................Page 43 

Tips for System Implementation ....................................................Page 45 

Workforce Development............................................................ Page 45 

Technology in Crisis Care ........................................................... Page 47 

System Evaluation Tools.................................................................Page 48 

Monitoring System and Provider Performance............................. Page 49 

Marketing and Communication Efforts..........................................Page 51 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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Conclusion......................................................................................Page 52 

Continuous Quality Improvement..................................................Page 53 

Case Study #1: ConnectionsAZ....................................................Page 53 

Case Study #2: RI International...................................................Page 56 

Addendum......................................................................................Page 58 

Interview 1 – Wesley Sowers, MD...............................................Page 59 

Interview 2 – Sandra Schneider, MD, FACEP ................................Page 61 

Interview 3 – Shelby Rowe .........................................................Page 65 

Interview 4 – Ron Bruno ............................................................Page 67 

Interview 5 – John Draper, PhD ..................................................Page 70 

Interview 6 – Nick Margiotta, Retired Detective...........................Page 72 

Interview 7 - Anonymous Peer Recovery Coach ...........................Page 75 

Visuals 

Table 1 - Continuum to Evaluate Crisis Systems ...........................Page 25 

Table 2 - Health Crisis Response Analogies ..................................Page 39 

Table 3 - Crisis Service Coding ....................................................Page 40 

Figure 1 – Crisis Resource Need Calculator ..................................Page 44 

Figure 2 - Crisis Facility Staffing Calculator...................................Page 46 

Figure 3 – Reliability Indicators Framework .................................Page 55 

Figure 4 – Law Enforcement Drop-offs........................................Page 57 

Figure 5 – Fusion Model Centers Across States ............................Page 58 

Figure 6 – Law Enforcement/Crisis Triage Tree ............................Page 69 

Contributors...................................................................................Page 79 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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Forward 

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services agency that leads public health efforts to advance the 

behavioral health of the nation. SAMHSA’s mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse 

and mental illness on America’s communities. 

This National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care Best Practice Toolkit (National 

Guidelines for Crisis Care) responds to SAMHSA’s mission by providing science-based, real-world 

tested best-practice guidance to the behavioral health field. The Toolkit reflects careful 

consideration of all relevant clinical and health service research, review of top national program 

practices and replicable approaches that support best practice implementation. Select 

nonfederal clinical researchers, service providers, program administrators and patient advocates 

offered input on specific topics in their areas of expertise to reach consensus on the best practices 

chosen to be included in this Toolkit. The evolution of this National Guidelines for Crisis Care 

benefited from the 15 year catalog of work of the SAMHSA-funded National Suicide Prevention 

Lifeline, the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s Crisis Services Task Force that 

produced Crisis Now recommendations in 2016, the Interdepartmental Seriously Mentally Ill 

Coordinating Committee (ISMICC) report to Congress in 2017 and feedback from exceptional 

crisis providers and administrators from around the nation. Field reviewers then assessed draft 

content prior to publication. 

The talent, dedication, and hard work that the Toolkit contributors and reviewers bring to this 

highly participatory process have helped bridge the gap between the promise of research and 

the needs of practicing clinicians and administrators to serve, in the most scientifically sound and 

effective ways, people in need of behavioral health services. We are grateful to all who have 

joined with us to contribute to advances in the behavioral health field. This report finally offers 

our communities true National Guidelines for Crisis Care within a user-friendly Best Practice 

Toolkit. You will also find innovative data-informed crisis system capacity modeling tools that can 

estimate the likely crisis service needs of your community and optimal resource allocations to 

meet those needs within a few key variables. Together, we can and will make a difference! 

Elinore F. McCance-Katz, M.D., Ph.D. 

Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use SAMHSA 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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Introduction 

Like a physical health crisis, a mental health crisis can be devastating for individuals, families and 

communities. While an individual crisis cannot be fully predicted, we can plan how we structure 

services and organize approaches to best meet the needs of those individuals who experience a 

mental health crisis. Too often that experience is met with delay, detainment and even denial of 

service in a manner that creates undue burden on the person, law enforcement, emergency 

departments and justice systems. 

Given the ever-expanding inclusion of the term “crisis” by entities describing service offerings 

that do not truly function as no-wrong-door safety net services, we must start by defining what 

crisis services are and what they are not. Crisis services are for anyone, anywhere and anytime. 

Examples of crisis level safety net services seen in communities around the country include (1) 

911 accepting all calls and dispatching support based on the assessed need of the caller, (2) law 

enforcement, fire or ambulance personnel dispatched to wherever the need is in the community 

and (3) hospital emergency departments serving everyone that comes through their doors from 

all referral sources. These services are for anyone, anywhere and anytime. 

Similarly, crisis services include (1) crisis lines accepting all calls and dispatching support based 

on the assessed need of the caller, (2) mobile crisis teams dispatched to wherever the need is in 

the community (not hospital emergency departments) and (3) crisis receiving and stabilization 

facilities that serve everyone that comes through their doors from all referral sources. These 

services are for anyone, anywhere and anytime. 

With non-existent or inadequate crisis care, costs escalate due to an overdependence on 

restrictive, longer-term hospital stays, hospital readmissions, overuse of law enforcement and 

human tragedies that result from a lack of access to care. Extremely valuable psychiatric inpatient 

assets are over-burdened with referrals that might be best-supported with less intrusive, less 

expensive services and supports. In too many communities, the “crisis system” has been

unofficially handed over to law enforcement; sometimes with devastating outcomes. The current 

approach to crisis care is patchwork and delivers minimal treatment for some people while 

others, often those who have not been engaged in care, fall through the cracks; resulting in 

multiple hospital readmissions, life in the criminal justice system, homelessness, early death and 

suicide. 

A comprehensive and integrated crisis network is the first line of defense in preventing tragedies 

of public and patient safety, civil rights, extraordinary and unacceptable loss of lives, and the 

waste of resources. There is a better way. Effective crisis care that saves lives and dollars requires 

a systemic approach. This toolkit will delineate how to estimate the crisis system resource needs 

of a community, the number of individuals who can be served within the system, the cost of crisis 

services, the workforce demands of implementing crisis care and the community-changing 

impact that can be seen when services are delivered in a manner that aligns with this Best 

Practice Toolkit. Readers will also learn how this approach harnesses data and technology, draws 

on the expertise of those with lived experience, and incorporates evidence-based suicide 

prevention practices. 

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Perhaps the most potent element of all, in an effective crisis service system, is relationships. To 

be human. To be compassionate. We know from experience that immediate access to help, hope 

and healing saves lives. 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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Overview 

Crisis mental health care in the United States is inconsistent and inadequate when it falls short 

of aligning with the best practice. This is tragic in that good crisis care is widely recognized as: 

1. An effective strategy for suicide prevention; 

2. An approach that better aligns care to the unique needs of the individual; 

3. A preferred strategy for the person in distress that offers services focused on resolving 

mental health and substance use crisis; 

4. A key element to reduce psychiatric hospital bed overuse; 

5. An essential resource to eliminate psychiatric boarding in emergency departments; 

6. A viable solution to the drains on law enforcement resources in the community; and 

7. Crucial to reducing the fragmentation of mental health care. 

Short-term, inadequate crisis care is shortsighted. Imagine establishing emergency services in a 

town by purchasing a 40-year-old fire engine and turning the town’s old service shop into the fire

station. It will work until there is a crisis. True no-wrong-door crisis care is needed and anything 

short of full implementation will fall short of meeting the needs of the community. 

Our country’s approach to crisis mental health care must be transformed. Addressing crisis is the 

most basic element of mental health care because it immediately and unconditionally accepts 

everyone seeking care. It represents real-time access to services that align with the needs of the 

person when the person needs it most. In many states and communities, crisis care is 

nonexistent, limited or simply an afterthought viewed as an additional expense that was not 

included in the local budget. We cannot afford to pay the exorbitant price of not offering crisis 

care; including: 

 The human cost of emotional pain of families struggling to access care; 

 The opportunity cost of lost community contribution as mental illness represents our 

nation’slargest source of disability; 

 The costs of law enforcement and the justice system teams dedicating a disproportionate 

amount of resources to addressissues that result from a person’s untreated crisis; and 

 The ever-escalating cost of inpatient healthcare for individuals who are unable to access 

needed community-based services in a timely manner. 

In many communities, the current crisis services model depends primarily upon after-hours work 

by on-call therapists or in space set aside within a crowded emergency department (ED). These 

limited and fragmented approaches are akin to plugging a hole in a dike with a finger. 

This toolkit is designed to bridge the unacceptable gap that currently exists in our continuum of 

care by solidifying national best practice guidelines that reflects SAMHSA’s view of the standard

of care we must expect in our communities. Core elements of a crisis system must include: 

1. Regional or statewide crisis call centers coordinating in real time; 

2. Centrally deployed, 24/7 mobile crisis; 

3. 23-hour crisis receiving and stabilization programs; and 

4. Essential crisis care principles and practices. 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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These elements are discussed in more detail later in this toolkit. Effective crisis care that saves 

lives and dollars requires a systemic approach, and these key elements must be in place. In this 

report, we will review the proven key components of good crisis care and demonstrate that 

piecemeal solutions are unacceptable. 

Many communities across the United States have limited or no access to true “no wrong door” 

crisis services; defaulting to law enforcement operating as community-based mental health crisis 

response teams with few options to connect individuals experiencing a mental health crisis to 

care in real time. The available alternatives represent systemic failures in responding to those in 

need; including incarceration for misdemeanor offences or drop-off at hospital emergency 

departments that far too often report being ill-equipped to address a person in mental health 

crisis. Unacceptable outcomes of this healthcare gap are (1) high rates of incarceration for 

individuals with mental health challenges, (2) crowding of emergency departments that 

experience lost opportunity costs with their beds and (3) higher rates of referral to expensive and 

restrictive inpatient care with extended lengths of stay because lower levels of intervention that 

better align with person’s needs are not available. For many others in crisis, individuals simply

fail to get the care they need; contributing to mental illness’s designation as the most prevalent 

disability in the United States and one of the greatest causes of lost economic opportunity in 

communities throughout the nation. 

The purpose of this publication is to establish a solitary set of national guidelines for crisis care 

and offer a toolkit that supports program design, development, implementation and continuous 

quality improvement in systems of care throughout the nation. 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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Core Services and Best Practices 

In this section, we define essential elements of effective, modern, and comprehensive crisis care 

along with the actions needed to bring those services to communities across the United States. 

The following represent the National Guidelines for Crisis Care essential elements within a nowrong-door integrated crisis system: 

1. Regional Crisis Call Center: Regional 24/7 clinically staffed hub/crisis call center that provides 

crisis intervention capabilities (telephonic, text and chat). Such a service should meet 

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) standards for risk assessment and engagement of 

individuals at imminent risk of suicide and offer air traffic control (ATC) - quality coordination 

of crisis care in real-time; 

2. Crisis Mobile Team Response: Mobile crisis teams available to reach any person in the service 

area in his or her home, workplace, or any other community-based location of the individual 

in crisis in a timely manner; and 

3. Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Facilities: Crisis stabilization facilities providing short-term 

(under 24 hours) observation and crisis stabilization services to all referrals in a home-like, 

non-hospital environment. 

Although there are many other services that will be incorporated into the continuum of a 

comprehensive system of care, these three programmatic components represent the three true 

crisis service elements when delivered to the fidelity of the Crisis Service Best Practice guidelines 

defined in this toolkit. However, crisis systems must not operate in isolation; instead striving to 

fully incorporate within the broader system of care so seamless transitions evolve to connect 

people in crisis to care based on the assessed need of the individual. 

A good way of looking at crisis system flow is to examine on the stratification of assessed need 

of individuals in crisis. The Level of Care Utilization System (LOCUS) is a tool designed to assess 

level of care needs of individuals experiencing psychiatric and addiction challenges for over a 

decade with broad utilization in many states around the country. Developed by the American 

Association of Community Psychiatrists, LOCUS provides a single easy-to-use instrument that can 

be used in a multitude ofsettingsto clarify an individual’s needs and identify services appropriate 

to address those needs. 

An analysis of over a decade of Level of Care Utilization System (LOCUS) data in Georgia from 

individuals who were engaged by a face-to-face crisis response service by facility-based or mobile 

team providers was recently completed; offering insight into what service types would best align 

with the needs of a community in a fully efficient crisis and acute care system. The statewide 

crisis line data set used in the analysis included a total of 1.2 million records, 431,690 of which 

met the criteria described above. This review resulted in the following breakdown that can be 

used to inform optimal initial referral paths within a system of care that includes a continuum of 

crisis services: 

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 14% (59,269 of 431,690) LOCUS Level 6 – Direct Referral to Acute Hospital; 

 54% (234,170 of 431,690) LOCUS Level 5 – Referral to Crisis Receiving and Stabilization 

Facility; and 

 32% (138,251 of 431,690) LOCUS Levels 4-1 – Evaluation by Crisis Mobile Team with 

Referral to Care as Needed. 

Crisis mobile teams are projected to serve a broader range of individuals in less acute crisis 

situations. A survey of higher-performing mobile crisis teams shows that approximately 70% of 

those engagements result in community stabilization. The remaining 30% should be connected 

to facility-based care that aligns with their assessed needs; including referrals, when indicated, 

to crisis receiving and stabilization facilities, respite or residential treatment programs. Crisis 

service providers should be prepared to support all individuals seeking their care and then 

connect them to care in a manner that truly aligns with the needs of the person. 

Crisis systems must work within the larger system of care to The true test of whether 

address the needs of community members. The true test of there is adequate 

whether there is adequate capacity to meet the needs of the capacity to meet the 

community is whether individuals are able to access needed needs of the community 

services in a timely manner. Psychiatric boarding in emergency is by assessing whether 

departments and an over-representation of people with mental individuals are able to 

health and substance use challenges within the justice systems access needed services 

would suggest insufficient capacity within that community; in a timely manner. 

warranting further analysis of flow within that system. 

In addition to the essential structural or programmatic elements of a crisis system, we have 

established a list of the following essential qualities that must be “baked into” comprehensive

crisis systems: 

1. Addressing recovery needs, significant use of peers, and trauma-informed care; 

2. “Suicide safer” care; 

3. Safety and security for staff and those in crisis; and 

4. Law enforcement and emergency medical services collaboration. 

The subsections of this Core Services and Guidelines for Care chapter that follow contain the 

information the user of this Toolkit will need to align service delivery with the Crisis Service Best 

Practice guidelines. 

Core Elements of a Crisis System 

The good news is that there are really only three core elements to a crisis system. Unfortunately, 

few communities have them and even fewer have them operating in a manner consistent with 

the Crisis Services Best Practice guidelines defined in this Toolkit. The three-core structural or 

programmatic elements of a crisis system defined in this section are: 

(1) Regional Crisis Call Center, 

(2) Crisis Mobile Team Response and 

(3) Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Facilities. 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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Regional Crisis Call Hub Services Someone To Talk To 

Regional crisis call services offer real-time access to a live person every moment of every day for 

individuals in crisis. Regional, 24/7, clinically staffed call hub/crisis call centers provide telephonic 

crisis intervention services to all callers, meet National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) 

operational guidelines regarding suicide risk assessment and engagement and offer air traffic 

control (ATC) quality coordination of crisis care in real-time. Ideally, these programs will also offer 

text and chat options to better engage entire communities in care. Analogous to a 911 call for 

most emergencies, mental health, substance use and suicide prevention lines must be equipped 

to take all calls with expertise in delivering telephonic intervention services, triaging the call to 

assess for additional needs and coordinating connections to additional support based on the 

assessment of the team and the preferences of the caller. 

At the time of this publication, Congress is considering a national 988 behavioral health crisis 

number to serve as a dedicated crisis call center line in a manner that generates better access to 

care through a more broadly recognized and remembered number than the local options that 

exist at this time. 

Minimum Expectations to Operate a Regional Crisis Call Service 

Regional, 24/7, clinically staffed call hub/crisis call centers must: 

1. Operate every moment of every day (24/7/365); 

2. Be staffed with clinicians overseeing clinical triage and other trained team members to 

respond to all calls received; 

3. Answer every call or coordinate overflow coverage with a resource that also meets all of 

the minimum crisis call center expectations defined in this toolkit; 

4. Assess risk of suicide in a manner that meets NSPL standards and danger to others within 

each call; 

5. Coordinate connections to crisis mobile team services in the region; and 

6. Connect individuals to facility-based care through warm hand-offs and coordination of 

transportation as needed. 

Best Practices to Operate Regional Crisis Call Center 

To fully align with best practice guidelines, centers must meet the minimum expectations and: 

1. Incorporate Caller ID functioning; 

2. Implement GPS-enabled technology in collaboration with partner crisis mobile teams to 

more efficiently dispatch care to those in need; 

3. Utilize real-time regional bed registry technology to support efficient connection to 

needed resources; and 

4. Schedule outpatient follow-up appointments in a manner synonymous with a warm 

handoff to support connection to ongoing care following a crisis episode. 

Implementation of the National Suicide Lifeline Policy for Helping Callers at Imminent Risk of 

Suicide is an expectation as these regional crisis line providers partner in Zero Suicide efforts 

around the country. Direct crisis center staff are expected to: 

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1. Practice active engagement with callers and make efforts to establish sufficient rapport 

so asto promote the caller’s collaboration in securing his/her own safety; 

2. Use the least invasive intervention and consider involuntary emergency interventions as 

a last resort, except for in circumstances as described below; 

3. Initiate life-saving services for attempts in progress – in accordance with guidelines that 

do not require the individual’s consent to initiate medically necessary rescue services; 

4. Initiate active rescue to secure the immediate safety of the individual at risk if the caller 

remains unwilling and/or unable to take action to prevent his/her suicide and remains at 

imminent risk; 

5. Practice active engagement with persons calling on behalf of someone else (“third-party 

callers”)towards determining the least invasive, most collaborative actionsto best ensure

the safety of the person at risk; 

6. Have supervisory staff available during all hours of operations for timely consultation in 

determining the most appropriate intervention for any individual who may be at imminent 

risk of suicide; and 

7. Maintain caller ID or other method of identifying the caller’s location that is readily

accessible to staff. 

Regional Crisis Call Center Technology 

The incorporation of advanced technologies is essential to efficiently operating a regional crisis 

call center hub. We see the nation’s air traffic control system (ATC) as one we can learn from as 

we work towards seamless connections to care in a mental health and substance use crisis 

system. 

Air Traffic Control (ATC) Capabilities with Crisis Line Expertise 

Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds was stabbed by his son, Gus, who then took his own life by 

suicide. Shortly before this horrific outcome, Gus had been assessed at a local hospital and a 

magistrate had ordered an involuntary commitment. However, no beds were available at any 

nearby inpatient psychiatric hospitals so Gus was sent home. Sadly, it is far too common for 

individuals in mental health crisis to receive an initial assessment but then “fall through the 

cracks” due to a failure to make a connection to care that aligns with the unique needs of the 

individual. The cracks occur because of interminable delays in access to services based on an 

absence of: 

1. Real-time coordination of crisis and outgoing services; and 

2. Linked, flexible services specific to crisis response, namely mobile crisis teams and crisis 

stabilization facilities. 

Because of these gaps, individuals walk out of a hospital emergency department (ED), often 

“against medical advice,” and disappear until the next crisis occurs. 

The nation’s approach to crisis call centers received a significant upgrade starting in 2004 with

creation of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL). Over time, the NSPL has 

demonstrated its effectiveness and raised the performance bar for crisis call centers. Recent 

SAMHSA initiatives include efforts to solidify real-time bed registries that can be used to more 

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National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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efficiently connect individuals to care during their times of greatest need. Air traffic control (ATC) 

systems provide a primary example of how access to real-time data and consistent standards 

lead to remarkable efficiency in complex systems. Adopting an ATC model for crisis services can 

significantly reduce the incidence of tragic and unacceptable outcomes for individuals in crisis. 

Learning from Air Traffic Control (ATC) Safety 

Air Traffic Control (ATC) works to ensure the safety of nearly 30,000 U.S. commercial flights per 

day. In the United States, this occurs with a very high success rate; making air travel remarkably 

safe today. Unfortunately, we have been less successful at supporting individuals who are 

navigating a mental health crisis. 

The advancements in ATC that have helped transform aviation safety are two vitally important 

objectives and, without them, it is nearly impossible to avoid tragedy: 

 Objective #1: Always know where the aircraft is (in time and space) and never lose 

contact; and 

 Objective #2: Verify the hand-off has occurred and the airplane is safely in the hands of 

another controller. 

These objectives easily translate to behavioral health and our evolving crisis systems of care. 

Always knowing where an individual in crisis is and verifying that the hand -off has occurred to 

the next service provider seem like relatively easy objectives to fulfill. However, they are missing 

from most U.S. behavioral health and crisis systems despite the existence of technology that is 

working in some regions. Individuals and families attempting to navigate the behavioral health 

system, typically in the midst of a mental health or addiction crisis, should have the same diligent 

standard of care that ATC provides. 

The Air Traffic Control (ATC) Model for Crisis Services and Functional Targets 

Air traffic control (ATC)-type technology is being applied by some crisis call center hubs in the 

country; offering real-time connection to GPS-enabled mobile teams, true system-wide access to 

available beds and outpatient appointment scheduling through the integrated crisis call center. 

These exceptional practice centers serve as a true hub for whole, integrated crisis system of care. 

Status Disposition for Intensive Referrals 

In an effective ATC-based model for crisis services, there must be shared tracking of the status 

and disposition of linkage/referrals for individuals needing intensive service levels; including 

requirements for service approval and transport, shared protocols for medical clearance 

algorithms and data on speed of accessibility (average minutes until disposition). An effective 

program should take advantage of sophisticated software to help crisis professionals assess and 

engage those at risk and track individuals throughout the process, including where they are, how 

long they have been waiting, and what specifically is needed to advance them to service linkage. 

For example, some systems display names on a pending linkage status board that highlight names 

in green, white, yellow, or red to reflect how long an individual has been waiting for connection 

to care. 

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24/7 Outpatient Scheduling 

Crisis staff should be able to schedule intake and outpatient appointments for individuals in crisis 

with providers across the region while providing data on speed of accessibility (average business 

days until appointment) by provider/program. 

Crisis Bed Registry 

An intensive services bed census is required; showing the availability of beds in crisis stabilization 

programs and 23-hour observation chairs, as well as beds in private psychiatric hospitals, with 

interactive two-way exchange (such as through an individual referral editor and inventory / 

through-put status board). 

High-Tech, GPS-enabled Mobile Crisis Dispatch 

Mobile crisis teams should use GPS-enabled tablets or smart phones to support quick and 

efficient call hub determination of the closest available teams, track response times, and ensure 

clinician safety (e.g., time at site, real-time communication, safe driving, etc.). 

Real-Time Performance Outcomes Dashboards 

Effective crisis service models utilize outwardly facing performance reports measuring a variety 

of metrics such as call volume, number of referrals, time-to-answer, abandonment rates, and 

service accessibility performance. When implemented in real time, the public transparency 

created through these reports provides an extra layer of urgency and accountability. 

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Mobile Crisis Team Services Someone To Respond 

Mobile crisis team services offering community-based intervention to individuals in need 

wherever they are; including at home, work, or anywhere else in the community where the 

person is experiencing a crisis. For safety and optimal engagement, two person teams should be 

put in place to support emergency department and justice system diversion. Emergency medical 

services (EMS) should be aware and partner as warranted. 

Minimum Expectations to Operate a Mobile Crisis Team Services 

Mobile crisis team services must: 

1. Include a licensed and/or credentialed clinician capable to assessing the needs of 

individuals within the region of operation; 

2. Respond where the person is (home, work, park, etc.) and not restrict services to select 

locations within the region or particular days/times; and 

3. Connect individuals to facility-based care as needed through warm hand-offs and 

coordinating transportation when and only if situations warrant transition to other 

locations. 

Best Practices to Operate Mobile Crisis Team Services 

To fully align with best practice guidelines, teams must meet the minimum expectations and: 

1. Incorporate peers within the mobile crisis team; 

2. Respond without law enforcement accompaniment unless special circumstances warrant 

inclusion in order to support true justice system diversion; 

3. Implement real-time GPS technology in partnership with the region’s crisis call center hub 

to support efficient connection to needed resources and tracking of engagement; and 

4. Schedule outpatient follow-up appointments in a manner synonymous with a warm 

handoff in order to support connection to ongoing care. 

Community-based mobile crisis services use face-to-face professional and peer intervention, 

deployed in real time to the location of the person in crisis in order to achieve the needed and 

best outcomes for that individual. Most community-based mobile crisis programs utilize teams 

that include both professional and paraprofessional staff. For example, a Master’s- or Bachelor’slevel clinician may be paired with a peer support specialist and the backup of psychiatrists or 

other Master’s-level clinicians who are on-call as needed. Peer support workers often take the 

lead on engagement and may also assist with continuity of care by providing support that 

continues beyond the resolution of the immediate crisis. 

SAMHSA’s 2014 Crisis Services: Effectiveness, Cost-Effectiveness, and Funding Strategies report 

stated: 

The main objectives of mobile crisis services are to provide rapid response, assess 

the individual, and resolve crisis situations that involve children and adults who are 

presumed or known to have a behavioral health disorder (Allen et al., 2002; Fisher, 

Geller, and Wirth-Cauchon, 1990; Geller, Fisher, and McDermeit, 1995). Additional 

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objectives may include linking people to needed services and finding hard-to-reach 

individuals (Gillig, 1995). The main outcome objective of mobile crisis teams is to 

reduce psychiatric hospitalizations, including hospitalizations that follow 

psychiatric ED admission. 

In summary, mobile crisis care: 

1. Helps individuals experiencing a crisis event to experience relief quickly and to resolve the 

crisis situation when possible; 

2. Meets individuals in an environment where they are comfortable; and 

3. Provides appropriate care/support while avoiding unnecessary law enforcement 

involvement, ED use and hospitalization. 

The same report confirmed previous evidence on the effectiveness of mobile crisis service: 

Four studies were identified with empirical evidence on the effectiveness of mobile 

crisis services: one randomized controlled trial (Currier et al., 2010) and three that 

used quasi-experimental designs (Guo, Biegel, Johnsen, and Dyches, 2001; Hugo, 

Smout, and Bannister, 2002; Scott, 2000; Dyches, Biegel, Johnsen, Guo, and Min, 

2002). The studies suggest that mobile crisis services are effective at diverting 

people in crisis from psychiatric hospitalization, effective at linking suicidal 

individuals discharged from the emergency department to services, and better 

than hospitalization at linking people in crisis to outpatient services. 

The cost-effectiveness of mobile crisis services is noted as well: 

Scott (2000) analyzed the effectiveness and efficiency of a mobile crisis program 

by comparing it to regular police intervention. The average cost per case was 

$1,520 for mobile crisis program services, which included $455 for program costs 

and $1,065 for psychiatric hospitalization. For regular police intervention, the 

average cost per case was $1,963, which consisted of $73 for police services and 

$1,890 for psychiatric hospitalization. In this study, mobile crisis services resulted 

in a 23 percent lower average cost per case. In another study analyzing the cost 

impact of mobile crisis intervention, Bengelsdorf et al., (1987) found that mobile 

crisis intervention services can reduce costs associated with inpatient 

hospitalization by approximately 79 percent in a six-month follow-up period after 

the crisis episode. 

SAMHSA asserts that mobile crisis team care is one of three essential elements of a wellintegrated crisis system of care. To maximize effectiveness, the availability of mobile crisis 

services should match needs in the area/region they serve on a 24/7/365 basis and should be 

deployed and monitored by an air traffic control (ATC)-capable regional call center. Essential 

functions of mobile crisis services include: 

 Triage/screening, including explicit screening for suicidality; 

 Assessment; 

 De-escalation/resolution; 

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 Peer support; 

 Coordination with medical and behavioral health services; and 

 Crisis planning and follow-up. 

Triage/Screening 

As most mobile crisis responses are initiated via phone call to a hotline or provider, the initial 

step in providing community-based mobile crisis services is to determine the level of risk faced 

by the individual in crisis and assess the most appropriate response to meet the need. In 

discussing the situation with the caller, the mobile crisis staff must decide if other first 

responders, such as police or emergency medical services, should be involved while 

understanding that this is not the preferred approach and one that should only be used when 

alternative behavioral health responders are not available or the nature of the crisis indicates 

that EMS or police are most appropriate. 

For example, if the person describes a serious medical condition or indicates that he or she poses 

an imminent threat of harm, the mobile crisis team should coordinate with emergency 

responders. The mobile crisis team can meet emergency responders at the site of the crisis and 

work together to resolve the situation. Explicit attention to screening for suicidality using an 

accepted, standardized suicide screening tool should be a part of triage. 

Assessment 

The behavioral health professional (BHP) on the mobile crisis team is responsible for completing 

an assessment. Specifically, the BHP should address: 

 Causes leading to the crisis event; including psychiatric, substance abuse, social, familial, 

legal factors and substance use; 

 Safety and risk for the individual and others involved; including an explicit assessment of 

suicide risk; 

 Strengths and resources of the person experiencing the crisis, as well as those of family 

members and other natural supports; 

 Recent inpatient hospitalizations and/or any current relationship with a mental health 

provider; 

 Medications prescribed as well as information on the individual’s compliance with the 

medication regimen; and 

 Medical history as it may relate to the crisis. 

De-Escalation and Resolution 

Community-based mobile crisis teams engage individuals in counseling throughout the 

encounter and intervene to de-escalate the crisis. The goal is not just to determine a needed level 

of care to which the individual should be referred, but to resolve the situation so a higher level 

of care is not necessary. 

Peer Support 

SAMHSA’s 2009 report (p.8) asserts that mental health crisis services “should afford

opportunities for contact with others whose personal experiences with mental illness and past 

mental health crises allow them to convey a sense of hopefulness first-hand. In addition, peers 

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can offer opportunities for the individual to connect with a supportive circle of people who have 

shared experiences—an option that may have particular relevance given feelings of isolation and 

fear that may accompany a mental health crisis” (see Significant Role for Peers in Section 4). 

For community-based mobile crisis programs, incorporating peers can add complementary 

qualifications to the team so that individuals in crisis are more likely to see someone they can 

relate to while they are receiving services. Peers should not reduplicate the role of BHPs but 

instead should establish rapport, share experiences, and strengthen engagement with the 

individual experiencing crisis. They may also engage with the family members of (or other 

persons significant to) those in crisis to educate them about self-care and ways to provide 

support. 

Coordination with Medical and Behavioral Health Services 

Community-based mobile crisis programs, as part of an integrated crisis system of care, should 

focus on linking individuals in crisis to all necessary medical and behavioral health services that 

can help resolve the situation and prevent future crises. These services may include crisis 

stabilization or acute inpatient hospitalization and treatment in the community (e.g., community 

mental health clinics, in-home therapy, family support services, crisis respite services, and 

therapeutic mentoring). 

Crisis Planning and Follow-Up 

SAMHSA’s essential elements of responding to mental health crisis include prevention. 

“Appropriate crisis response works to ensure that crises will not be recurrent by evaluating and

considering factors that contributed to the current episode and that will prevent future relapse. 

Hence, an adequate crisis response requires measures that address the person’s unmet needs,

both through individualized planning and by promoting systemic improvements” (SAMHSA, 2009:

p. 7, emphasis in the original). During a mobile crisis intervention, the BHP and peer support 

professional should engage the individual in a crisis planning process; resulting in the creation or 

update of a range of planning tools including a safety plan. 

When indicated, mobile crisis service providers should also follow up with individuals served to 

determine if the services to which they were referred were provided in a timely manner and are 

meeting their needs. This activity is typically completed through telephonic outreach but there 

may be times when further face-to-face engagement may be warranted or even necessary when 

the individual cannot be reached by phone. 

Crisis Mobile Service Summary 

Community-based mobile crisis is an integral part of a crisis system of care. Mobile crisis 

interventions provide individuals with less restrictive care in a more comfortable environment 

that is likely to produce more effective results than hospitalization or ED utilization. When 

collaboration exists with hospitals, medical and behavioral health providers, law enforcement, 

and other social services, community-based mobile crisis is an effective and efficient way of 

resolving mental health crisis and preventing future crisis situations. 

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Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services A Place to Go 

Crisis receiving and stabilization services offer the community a no-wrong-door access to mental 

health and substance use care; operating much like a hospital emergency department that 

accepts all walk-ins, ambulance, fire and police drop-offs. The need to say yes to mental health 

crisis referrals, including working with persons of varying ages (as allowed within the facility 

license) and clinical conditions (such as serious emotional disturbances, serious mental illness, 

intellectual and developmental disabilities), regardless of acuity, informs program staffing, 

physical space, structure and use of chairs or recliners in lieu of beds that offer far less capacity 

or flexibility within a given space. As we will discuss 

later in this toolkit, it is important to fund these One of the phrases we have seen 

facility-based programs so they can deliver on the applied to programs around the 

commitment of never rejecting a first responder or country is “Thank you. Can I have

walk-in referral in order to realize actual another?” in reference to law 

emergency department and justice system enforcement bringing individuals diversion. If an individual’s condition is assessed to

require medical attention in a hospital or referral to to the program. 

a dedicated withdrawal management (i.e., referred 

to more commonly and historically as detoxification) program, it is the responsibility of the crisis 

receiving and stabilization facility to make those arrangements and not shift responsibility to the 

initial referral source (family, first responder or mobile team). Law enforcement is not expected 

to do the triage or assessment for the crisis system and it is important that those lines never 

become blurred. 

Minimum Expectations to Operate a Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Service 

Crisis receiving and stabilization services must: 

1. Accept all referrals; 

2. Not require medical clearance prior to admission but rather assessment and support for 

medical stability while in the program; 

3. Design their services to address mental health and substance use crisis issues; 

4. Employ the capacity to assess physical health needs and deliver care for most minor 

physical health challenges with an identified pathway in order to transfer the individual 

to more medically staffed services if needed; 

5. Be staffed at all times (24/7/365) with a multidisciplinary team capable of meeting the 

needs of individuals experiencing all levels of crisis in the community; including: 

a. Psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners (telehealth may be used) 

b. Nurses 

c. Licensed and/or credentialed clinicians capable of completing assessments in the 

region; and 

d. Peers with lived experience similar to the experience of the population served. 

6. Offer walk-in and first responder drop-off options; 

7. Be structured in a manner that offers capacity to accept all referrals at least 90% of the 

time with a no rejection policy for first responders; 

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8. Screen for suicide risk and complete comprehensive suicide risk assessments and 

planning when clinically indicated; and 

9. Screen for violence risk and complete more comprehensive violence risk assessments and 

planning when clinically indicated. 

Best Practices to Operate Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services 

To fully align with best practice guidelines, centers must meet the minimum expectations and: 

1. Function as a 24 hour or less crisis receiving and stabilization facility; 

2. Offer a dedicated first responder drop-off area; 

3. Incorporate some form of intensive support beds into a partner program (could be within 

the services’ own program or within another provider) to support flow for individuals who 

need additional support; 

4. Include beds within the real-time regional bed registry system operated by the crisis call 

center hub to support efficient connection to needed resources; and 

5. Coordinate connection to ongoing care. 

Many individuals in crisis brought to hospital EDs for stabilization report experiencing increased 

distress and worsening symptoms due to noise and crowding, limited privacy in the triage area, 

and being attended to by staff who have little experience with psychiatric crisis care. All of this 

increases frustration and agitation (Clarke et al., 2007). Agar-Jacomb and Read (2009) found 

individuals who had received crisis services preferred going to a safe place, speaking with peers 

and trained professionals who could understand what they were experiencing, and interacting 

with people who offered respect and dignity to them as individuals; an experience they did not 

have at the hospital. In such an alternative setting, psychiatric crises can be de-escalated. 

In the 2014 Crisis Services: Effectiveness, Cost-Effectiveness, and Funding Strategies report, 

SAMHSA defined crisis stabilization as: 

A direct service that assists with deescalating the severity of a person’s level of

distress and/or need for urgent care associated with a substance use or mental 

disorder. Crisis stabilization services are designed to prevent or ameliorate a 

behavioral health crisis and/or reduce acute symptoms of mental illness by 

providing continuous 24-hour observation and supervision for persons who do not 

require inpatient services.” (p. 9). 

Data suggests that a high proportion of people in crisis who are evaluated for hospitalization 

(LOCUS levels 5 and 6) can be safely cared for in a crisis facility and that the outcomes for these 

individuals are at least as good as hospital care while the cost of crisis care is substantially less 

than the costs of inpatient care and accompanying emergency department “medical clearance”

charges. 

The Role of the Psychiatrist/Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner 

Psychiatrists and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners serve as clinical leaders of the multi -disciplinary 

crisis team. Essential functions include ensuring clinical soundness of crisis services through 

evaluation of need, continued monitoring of care and crisis service discharge planning. 

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The role of the psychiatrist/psychiatric nurse practitioner during the evaluation is to: 

 Clarify diagnosis and information within any existing psychiatric advance directive (PAD); 

 Evaluate and define a course of care for substance use, mental & physical health needs; 

 Collaborate with the team to assess risk and level of care needs; 

 Participate in establishing patient-centered treatment goals and plans with the team; 

 Educate about medications and care options; and 

 Partner with the team to engage with the person’ssupport system.

The role of the psychiatrist/psychiatric nurse practitioner in continued treatment is to: 

 Monitor patient-centered needs and risk while adjusting treatment as needed; 

 Collaborate to support movement towards recovery goals in a patient-centered fashion; 

 Participate in the delivery of family education as applicable; 

 Educate, train and model best practice care to team members during treatment; and 

 Provide overall clinical leadership and oversight of patient-centered care. 

The role of the psychiatrist/psychiatric nurse practitioner during the discharge process is to: 

 Collaborate with the team and those served to develop PAD and discharge plan; 

 Prescribe medication to bridge until the person’sfollow-up appointment; and 

 Support persons served with education about discharge medications and any follow-up 

needs or recommendations for monitoring side effects. 

Additional Elements of a System of Care 

As noted previously, essential crisis system elements are limited to (1) the crisis call center hub, 

(2) crisis mobile response and (3) crisis receiving and stabilization services. A multitude of other 

resources that support a comprehensive system of care exist; including facility-based resources 

such as short-term residential facilities and peer respite programs that offer step down options 

for individuals following a crisis episode. 

Short-Term Residential Facilities 

Small, home-like short-term residential facilities can be seen as a strong step-down option to 

support individuals who do not require inpatient care after their crisis episode. In many 

communities, these are called crisis residential facilities. SAMHSA cautions that these are not 

actual crisis facilities given the criteria that a crisis facility must accept all referrals. However, they 

are an important part of a continuum that can be used to address the needs of individuals 

experiencing LOCUS assessed needs of 4 and 5 in a cost -effective manner. As such, staffing for 

these programs is far less intensive than a crisis receiving and stabilization facility. Short-term 

crisis residential programs should minimally have a licensed and/or credentialed clinician on 

location for several hours each day and on-call for other hours. 

To maximize their usefulness, short-term residential facilities should function as part of an 

integrated regional system of care. Access to these programs should be facilitated through the 

air traffic control (ATC)-capable call center hub of the region to maximize system efficiency. This 

approach also centralizes data regarding program occupancy, lengths of stay, percentage of 

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referrals accepted and time to make decisions on referral acceptance; offer valuable data on how 

each participate in the system of care is supporting the needs of the community. 

Peer-Operated Respite 

Another model of short-term facility-based care is a peer-operated respite program. These 

programs do not typically incorporate licensed staff members on site although some may be 

involved to support assessments. They provide peer-staffed, restful, voluntary sanctuary for 

people in crisis, which is preferred by guests and increasingly valued in service systems. Peerrespite offers a low-cost, supportive step-down environment for individuals coming out of or 

working to avoid the occurrence of a crisis episode. Program activities should focus on issues 

that have contributed to the escalation in challenges facing the individual and/or their support 

system and the skills needed to succeed in the community. 

Crisis System Coordination 

Crisis services should not be viewed as stand-alone resources operating independent of the local 

community mental health and hospital systems but rather an integrated part of a coordinated 

continuum of care. Services needs and preferences of the individual served must be assessed to 

inform the interventions of the crisis provider and the connections to care that follow the crisis 

episode. This is not easily achieved given the complex dynamics that are in play in many 

communities throughout the country that have complex health ecosystems influencing the care 

delivery system. Given the understanding that pieces of a continuum of care will not typically 

align and partner fully without a purposeful intent, regular communication between crisis 

services, local hospital and outpatient service leaderships must be coordinated in a thoughtful 

manner that focuses on the needs of the community served. 

Agency-to-agency collaboration is essential and may manifest through personal relationships of 

leaders, Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), shared protocols or more advanced high-tech 

solutions such as real-time bed registries, shared GPS-enabled communication to support 

dispatch and outpatient appointment setting through the call center hub. A modification of the 

Milbank collaboration continuum may be used to assess the degree to which crisis systems are 

meeting the expectation of community coordination and collaboration (shown in Table 2 below). 

Table 1 - Continuum to Evaluate Crisis Systems and Collaboration 

In this model, the highest level of care requires shared protocols for coordination and care 

management that are supported in real time by electronic processes. For a crisis service system 

to provide Level 5 close and fully integrated care, it must implement an integrated suite of 

software applications that employ online, real-time, and 24/7 ability to communicate about, 

update and monitor available resources in the network of provider agencies. 

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Psychiatric Advance Directives 

A psychiatric or mental health advance directive (PAD) is a legal tool that allows a person with 

mental illness to state their preferences for treatment in advance of a crisis. They can serve as a 

way to protect a person's autonomy and ability to self-direct care. Crisis providers are expected 

to always seek to understand and implement any existing PAD that has been developed by the 

individual during the evaluation phase and work to ensure the individual discharges from crisis 

care with an updated and accurate psychiatric advance directive whenever possible. PAD creates 

a path to express treatment preferences and identify a representative who is trusted and legally 

empowered to make healthcare decisions on medications, preferred facilities and listings of 

visitors. 

Essential Principles for Modern Crisis Care Systems 

A crisis provider’s approach to care must include the incorporation of a philosophy that removes

barriers to accessing care. Regional 24/7 clinically staffed crisis call centers must be equipped to 

triage and provide telephonic support to any caller, mobile teams must go to wherever the 

person in need is at the time of their crisis and crisis stabilization centers must accept all referrals 

that walk through their door or are brought in by first responders. To execute on this bold 

approach to care, a crisis provider must be staffed to meet these expectations. First responders 

and other community partners must know that they are able to connect every individual to care 

in a timely manner. Approaches that result in the rejection of even a small percentage of referrals 

translate into questioning whether crisis is really a viable alternative to emergency department 

and jail options that do not reject referrals. 

There are many other levels of care that contribute to a comprehensive system of care and most 

of those will implement some form of admission criteria that restricts who is admitted to the 

program. This is appropriate for a vast majority of non-crisis programs but cannot be part of a 

crisis provider’s practice. Much like 911, fire, police and emergency departments, the expectation 

is that crisis programs will respond to emergent appeals for support; never responding with an 

unwillingness to engage in addressing the emergent issue. 

Core Principles 

Best practice crisis care incorporates a set of core principles throughout the entire crisis service 

delivery system; offering elements that must be systematically “baked in” to excellent crisis

systems in addition to the core structural elements that are defined as essential for modern crisis 

systems. These essential principles and practices are: 

1. Addressing Recovery Needs, 

2. Significant Role for Peers, 

3. Trauma-Informed Care, 

4. Zero Suicide/Suicide Safer Care, 

5. Safety/Security for Staff and People in Crisis and 

6. Crisis Response Partnerships with Law Enforcement, Dispatch and Emergency Medical 

Services (EMS). 

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Addressing Recovery Needs 

Crisis providers must address the recovery needs of individuals and families to move beyond their 

mental health and substance use challenges to lead happy, productive and connected lives each 

and every day. At the 2019 International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL) Crisis 

Now Summit, consumer Misha Kessler ended his description of his direct experiences with crisis 

services, “Mental illness is [just] one part of my tapestry.”

Recovery is possible and should not be viewed within the narrow definition of an absence of 

symptoms. In fact, many individuals develop meaning and purpose in life despite the 

continuation of symptoms. The report of the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental

Health (Hogan, 2003) recommended that mental health care be “recovery-oriented” and

enriched by person-centered approaches, a hopeful and empowering style, and increased 

availability of support by individuals with lived experience. 

The significance of a recovery-oriented approach is elevated for individuals in crisis and, thus, for 

crisis settings. In an outmoded, traditional model, crises reflect “something wrong” with the

individual. Risk is seen as something to be contained; often through involuntary commitment to 

an inpatient setting. In worst-case situations, this obsolete approach interacts with inadequate 

care alternatives; resulting in people restrained on emergency room gurneys or transferred to 

jails because of their behavior. 

In a recovery-oriented approach to crisis care, the risks of harm to self or others are recognized, 

but the basic approach is fundamentally different. Crises are viewed as challenges that may 

present opportunities for growth. When crises are managed in comfortable and familiar settings, 

people feel less alone and isolated with their feelings of anxiety, panic, depression, and 

frustration. This creates a sense of empowerment and belief in one’s own recovery and ability to

respond effectively to future crises. A recovery-oriented approach to crisis care is integral to 

transforming a broken system. Not only must we expand crisis care, but we must forge a better 

approach to crisis care by ensuring implementation of fidelity to these best practice guidelines. 

Implementation Guidance 

1. Commit to a no-force-first approach to quality improvement in care that is characterized 

by engagement and collaboration. 

2. Create engaging and supportive environments that are as free of barriers as possible. This 

should include eliminating Plexiglas from crisis stabilization units and minimal barriers 

between team members and those being served to support stronger connections. 

3. Ensure team members engage individuals in the care process during a crisis. Communicate 

clearly regarding all options and offer materials regarding the process in writing in the 

individual’s preferred language whenever possible. 

4. Ask the individual served about their preferences and do what can be done to align actions 

to those preferences. 

5. Help ensure natural supports and personal attendants are also part of the planning team, 

such as with youth and persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

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6. Work to convert those with an involuntary commitment to voluntary so they are invested 

in their own recovery. 

Significant Role for Peers 

One specific, transformative element of recovery-oriented care is to fully engage the experience, 

capabilities and compassion of people who have experienced mental health crises. Including 

individuals with lived mental health and substance use disorder experience (peers) as core 

members of a crisis team supports engagement efforts through the unique power of bonding 

over common experiences while adding the benefits of the peer modeling that recovery is 

possible. 

Including peers—especially people who have experienced suicidality and suicide attempts and 

have learned from these experiences—can be a safe and effective program mechanism for 

assessing and reducing suicide risk for persons in crisis. Peer intervention in the crisis setting with 

suicidal individuals is particularly potent in light of the reported 11% to 50% range of attempters 

who refuse outpatient treatment or abandon outpatient treatment quickly following ED referral 

(Kessler et al., 2005). Peers can relate without judgment, can communicate hope in a time of 

great distress, and can model the fact that improvement and success are possible. This increases 

engagement while reducing distress. 

The role of peers—specifically survivors of suicide attempts as well as survivors of suicide loss—

was bolstered when the National Action Alliance’s Suicide Attempt Survivors Task Force released

its groundbreaking report, The Way Forward: Pathways to Hope, Recovery, and Wellness with 

Insights from Lived Experience, in July 2014. The report describes the many ways in which learning 

from and capitalizing on lived experience can be accomplished. 

Implementation Guidance 

1. Hire credentialed peers with lived experience that reflect the characteristics of the 

community served as much as possible. Peers should be hired with attention to common 

characteristics such as gender, race, primary language, ethnicity, religion, veteran status, 

lived experiences and age. 

2. Develop support and supervision that aligns with the needs of your program’s team

members. 

3. Emphasize engagement as a fundamental pillar of care that includes peers as a vital part 

of a crisis program’s service delivery system. This should include (1) integrating peers 

within available crisis line operations, (2) having peers serve as one of two mobile team 

members and (3) ensuring a peer is one of the first individuals to greet an individual 

admitted to a crisis stabilization facility. 

Trauma-Informed Care 

The great majority of individuals served in mental health and substance use services have 

experienced significant interpersonal trauma. The adverse effects of childhood trauma may 

present well into adulthood; increasing the risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mental 

illness, substance abuse, and poor medical health (Finkelhor et al., 2005). Persons with history of 

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trauma or trauma exposure are more likely to engage in self-harm and suicide attempts and their 

trauma experiences make them very sensitive to how care is provided. 

Mental health crises and suicidality often are rooted in trauma. These crises are compounded 

when crisis care involves loss of freedom, noisy and crowded environments and/or the use of 

force. These situations can actually re-traumatize individuals at the worst possible time, leading 

to worsened symptoms and a genuine reluctance to seek help in the future. 

On the other hand, environments and treatment approaches that are safe and calm can facilitate 

healing. Thus, we find that trauma-informed care is an essential element of crisis treatment. In 

2014, SAMHSA set the following guiding principles for trauma-informed care: 

1. Safety; 

2. Trustworthiness and transparency; 

3. Peer support and mutual self-help; 

4. Collaboration and mutuality; 

5. Empowerment, voice and choice; and 

6. Ensuring cultural, historical and gender considerations inform the care provided. 

These principles should inform treatment and recovery services. If such principles and their 

practice are evident in the experiences of staff as well as consumers, the program’s culture is

trauma-informed and will screen for trauma exposure in all clients served, as well as examine the 

impact of trauma on mental and physical well-being. Addressing the trauma that family and 

significant others have experienced is also a critical component that assists stabilization and 

reduces the possibility of further trauma or crisis. 

Trauma-informed systems of care ensure these practices are integrated into service delivery. 

Developing and maintaining a healthy environment of care also requires support for staff, who 

may have experienced trauma themselves. An established resource for further understanding 

trauma-informed care is provided by SAMHSA (2014): Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral 

Health Services (TIP 57). 

Trauma-informed care is urgently important in crisis settings because of the links between 

trauma and crisis and the vulnerability of people in crisis; especially those with trauma histories. 

Implementation Guidance 

1. Incorporate trauma-informed care training into each team member’s new employee

orientation with refreshers delivered as needed. 

2. Apply assessment tools that evaluate the level of trauma experienced by the individuals 

served by the crisis program and create action steps based on those assessments. 

Zero Suicide/Suicide Safer Care 

Crisis intervention programs have always focused on suicide prevention. This stands in contrast 

to other health care and even mental health services, where suicide prevention was not always 

positioned as a core responsibility. Two transformational commitments must be made by every 

crisis provider in the nation: (1) adoption of suicide prevention as a core responsibility, and (2) 

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commitment to dramatic reductions in suicide among people under care. These changes were 

adopted and advanced in the revised National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (2012), specifically 

via a new Goal 8: “Promote suicide prevention as a core component of health care services” (p. 

51). 

The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention created a set of evidence-based actions 

known as Zero Suicide or Suicide Safer Care that health care organizations can apply through an 

implementation toolkit developed by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) at 

Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC). The following seven key elements of Zero Suicide or 

Suicide Safer Care are all applicable to crisis care: 

1. Leadership-driven, safety-oriented culture committed to dramatically reducing suicide 

among people under care, that includes survivors of suicide attempts and suicide loss in 

leadership and planning roles; 

2. Developing a competent, confident, and caring workforce; 

3. Systematically identifying and assessing suicide risk among people receiving care; 

4. Ensuring every individual has a pathway to care that is both timely and adequate to meet 

his or her needs and includes collaborative safety planning and a reduction in access to 

lethal means; 

5. Using effective, evidence-based treatments that directly target suicidal thoughts and 

behaviors; 

6. Providing continuous contact and support; especially after acute care; and 

7. Applying a data-driven quality improvement approach to inform system changes that will 

lead to improved patient outcomes and better care for those at risk. 

See more at http://zerosuicide.sprc.org/about 

It should be noted that the elements of Zero Suicide closely mirror the standards and guidelines 

of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL), which has established suicide risk assessment 

standards, guidelines for callers at imminent risk, and protocols for follow-up contact after the 

crisis encounter. Zero Suicide also promotes collaborative safety planning, reducing access to 

lethal means, and incorporating, into the service provided, the feedback of suicide loss and 

suicide attempt survivors. 

Since comprehensive crisis intervention systems are the most urgently important clinical service 

for suicide prevention and most parts of the country do not have adequate crisis care, we find a 

national and state-level commitment to implementing comprehensive crisis services to be 

foundational to suicide prevention; leading to an expectation that best practices in suicide care 

be required by health authorities (i.e., payers, plans, state agencies, Medicaid and Medicare). 

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Implementation Guidance 

1. Incorporate suicide risk screening, assessment and planning into the new employee 

orientation for all team members. 

2. Mandate completion of Applied Suicide Intervention Services Training (ASIST) or similar 

training by all team members serving individuals who receive crisis services. 

3. Incorporate suicide risk screening, assessment and planning into the crisis provider’s

practices. 

4. Automate the suicide risk screening, assessment and planning process, and associated 

escalation processes, within the electronic medical record of the crisis provider. 

5. Commit to a goal of Zero Suicide as a state and as a crisis system of care. 

Safety/Security for Staff and People in Crisis 

Safety for both individuals served and staff is a foundational element for all crisis service settings. 

Crisis settings are also on the front lines of assessing and managing suicidality and possibly 

thoughts or aggressive behaviors, issues with life and death consequences. While ensuring safety 

for people using crisis services is paramount, the safety for staff cannot be compromised. 

People in crisis may have experienced violence or acted in violent ways, they may be intoxicated 

or delusional, and/or they may have been brought in by law enforcement and thus may present 

an elevated risk for violence. 

Trauma-informed and recovery-oriented care is safe care. But much more than philosophy is 

involved. The Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS’s) Mental Health Crisis Service 

Standards (2006) begin to address this issue, setting parameters for crisis services that are flexible 

and delivered in the least restrictive available setting while attending to intervention, deescalation and stabilization. 

Keys to safety and security in crisis delivery settings include: 

 Evidence-based and trauma-informed crisis training for all staff; 

 Role-specific staff training and appropriate staffing ratios to number of clients being 

served; 

 A non-institutional and welcoming physical space and environment for persons in crisis, 

rather than Plexiglas “fishbowl” observation rooms and keypad-locked doors. This space 

must also be anti-ligature sensitive and contain safe rooms for people for whom violence 

may be imminent; 

 Established policies and procedures emphasizing “no force first” prior to implementation

of safe physical restraint or seclusion procedures; 

 Pre-established criteria for crisis system entry; 

 Strong relationships with law enforcement and first responders; and 

 Policies that include the roles of clinical staff (and law enforcement if needed) for 

management of incidents of behavior that places others at risk. 

Ongoing staff training is critical for maintaining both staff competence and confidence, and 

promotes improved outcomes for persons served and decreased risk for staff (Technical 

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Assistance Collaborative, 2005). Nationally recognized best practices in crisis intervention such 

as CPI (Crisis Prevention Institute, Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Training) and Therapeutic 

Options (Therapeutic Options, Inc.) are highly effective and instrumental in their utilization of 

positive practices to minimize the need for physical interventions and re-traumatization of 

persons in crisis. Such approaches have contributed to a culture of safety for staff and clients in 

the crisis setting. 

Adequate staffing for the number and clinical needs of individuals under care is foundational to 

safety. Access to a sufficient number of qualified staff (clinicians, nurses, providers and peer 

support professionals) promotes timely crisis intervention and risk management for persons in 

crisis who are potentially dangerous to themselves or others (DHHS, 2006). 

In some crisis facilities licensed or certified to provide intensive services, seclusion and/or 

restraint may be permitted. Though some practitioners view physical and/or pharmacological 

restraint and seclusion as safe interventions, they are often associated with increased injury to 

both clients and staff and may re-traumatize individuals who have experienced physical trauma. 

Therefore, restraint and seclusion are now considered safety measures of last resort, not to be 

used as punishment, an alternative to appropriate staffing of crisis programs, a technique for 

behavior management, or a substitute for active treatment (Technical Assistance Collaborative, 

2005). 

Crisis providers must engage in person-centered planning and treatment while assessing risk for 

violence to collaboratively develop de-escalation and safety plans for individuals served by the 

program. Staff and individuals involved in those interventions should be debriefed after a 

seclusion/restraint event to inform policies, procedures, and practices; reducing the probability 

of future use of such interventions. 

Following the tragic death of Washington State social worker Marty Smith in 2006, the mental 

health division of the state’s Department of Social and Health Services sponsored two safety 

summits. The legislature passed into law a bill (SHB 1456) relating to home visits by mental health 

professionals. 

According to SHB 1456, the keys to safety and security for home visits by mental health staff 

include: 

 No mental health crisis outreach worker will be required to conduct home visits alone. 

 Employers will equip mental health workers who engage in home visits with a 

communication device; 

 Mental health workers dispatched on crisis outreach visits will have prompt access to any 

information available on history of dangerousness or potential dangerousness on the 

client they are visiting. 

Ensuring safety for both consumers and staff is the very foundation of effective crisis care. While 

safety is urgently important in all health care, in crisis care, the perception of safety is also 

essential. The prominence and damaging effects of trauma and the fear that usually accompanies 

psychological crisis make safety truly “Job One” in all crisissettings. 

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Implementation Guidance 

1. Commit to a no-force-first approach to care. 

2. Monitor, report and review all incidents of seclusion and restraint with the goal of 

minimizing the use of these interventions. 

3. Remember that barriers do not equal safety. The key to safety is engagement and 

empowerment of the individual served while in crisis. 

4. Offer enough space in the physical environment to meet the needs of the population 

served. A lack of space can elevate anxiety for all. 

5. Incorporate quiet spaces into your crisis facility for those who would benefit from time 

away from the milieu of the main stabilization area. 

6. Engage your team members and those you serve in discussions regarding how to enhance 

safety within the crisis program. 

Law Enforcement and Crisis Response—An Essential Partnership 

Law enforcement agencies have reported a significant increase in police contacts with people 

with mental illness in recent years. Some involvement with mental health crises is inevitable for 

police. As first responders, they are often the principal point of entry into emergency mental 

health services for individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. 

Police officers are critical to mobile crisis services as well; either (1) providing support in 

potentially dangerous situations (Geller, Fisher, & McDermeit, 1995) when the need is assessed 

or (2) as a referral source delivering warm hand-offs to crisis mobile teams. Research 

investigating law enforcement response to individuals with mental illness (Reuland, Schwarzfeld, 

& Draper, 2009) found police officers frequently: 

 Encounter persons with mental illness at risk of harming themselves; 

 Often spend a greater amount of time attempting to resolve situations involving people 

exhibiting mental health concerns; 

 Address many incidents informally by talking to the individuals with mental illness; 

 Encounter a small subset of “repeat players”; and 

 Often transport individuals to an emergency medical facility where they may wait for 

extended periods of time for medical clearance or admission. 

In many communities across the United States, the absence of sufficient and well -integrated 

mental health crisis care has made local law enforcement the de facto mental health mobile crisis 

system. This is unacceptable and unsafe. The role of local law enforcement in addressing 

emergent public safety risk is essential and important. With good mental health crisis care in 

place, the care team can collaborate with law enforcement in a fashion that will improve both 

public safety and mental health outcomes. Unfortunately, well-intentioned law enforcement 

responders to a crisis call often escalate the situation solely based on the presence of police 

vehicles and armed officers that generate anxiety for far too many individuals in a crisis. 

We now know a good deal about crisis care/law enforcement collaboration. Deane et al. (1999), 

reporting on partnerships between mental health and law enforcement, found the alliance 

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between first responders and mental health professionals helped to reduce unnecessary 

hospitalization or incarceration. Specialized responses to mental health crisis included police -

based specialized police response, police-based specialized mental health response, and mental 

health-based specialized mental health response. These forms of collaboration share the 

common goal of diverting people with mental health crises from criminal justice settings into 

mental health treatment settings and were rated as “moderately effective” or “very effective” in

addressing the needs of persons in crisis. 

Specialized police responses involve police training by mental health professionals in order to 

provide crisis intervention and act as liaisons to the mental health system. The Memphis Crisis 

Intervention Team (CIT) model pioneered this approach. In CIT, training for law enforcement 

includes educating officers about mental illness, substance use and abuse, psychiatric 

medications, and strategies for identifying and responding to a crisis (Tucker et al., 2008). Lord 

et al. (2011) found most officers involved volunteered to participate in the training. 

Consistent with the findings above, CIT necessitates a strong partnership and close collaboration 

between the police officers and mental health programs that includes the availability of a crisis 

setting where police can drop off people experiencing a mental health crisis. CIT has been cited 

as a “Best Practice” model for law enforcement (Thompson & Borum, 2006). Crisis programs 

should engage in ongoing dialog with local law enforcement agencies to support continuous 

quality improvement and collaborative problem-solving. Top crisis systems report facilitating 

monthly meetings with aggregate data sharing as a part of their ongoing operations. 

Strong partnerships between crisis care systems and law enforcement are essential for public 

safety, suicide prevention, connections to care justice system diversion and the elimination of 

psychiatric boarding in emergency departments. The absence of comprehensive crisis systems 

has been the major “front line” cause of the criminalization of mental illness and a root cause of 

shootings and other incidents that have left people with mental illness and officers dead. 

Collaboration is the key to reversing these inacceptable trends. 

Implementation Guidance 

1. Have local crisis providers actively participate in CIT training or related mental health crisis 

management training sessions. 

2. Incorporate regular meetings between law enforcement and crisis providers, including 

EMS and dispatch, into the schedule so these partners can work to continuously improve 

their practices. 

3. Include training on crisis provider and law enforcement partnerships in the training for 

both partner groups. 

4. Share aggregate outcomes data such as numbers served, percentage stabilized and 

returned to the community and connections to ongoing care. 

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Unique Challenges of Rural and Frontier Communities 

Rural and frontier communities face unique workforce and geographic challenges that make it 

more difficult to deliver high quality crisis services that meet the needs of the region. System 

leaders should evaluate opportunities to leverage technology and existing program capacity to 

deliver care to maximize access to timely services. Approaches should include: 

1. Learning how other first responder services like law enforcement, fire and emergency 

medical services operate in the area. 

2. Leveraging existing first responder transportation systems to offer access to care in a 

manner that aligns with emergency medical services in the area. 

3. Incorporating technology such as telehealth to offer greater access to limited licensed 

professional resources. 

4. Developing crisis response teams with members who serve multiple roles in communities 

with limited demand for crisis care to advance round the clock support when called-upon. 

5. Establishing rural reimbursement rates for services that support the development of 

adequate crisis care in the area. 

6. Creating crisis service response time expectations that consider the geography of the 

region while still supporting timely access to care. 

Residents of rural and frontier communities are at risk of experiencing mental health and 

substance use crisis. When this occurs, these individuals must have access to care that meets 

their needs in a timely manner much like their counterparts in urban communities. Limited 

resources may make this aspiration challenging. However, approaches are available to narrow 

the difference between these rural communities and those with higher population densities. 

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Funding Crisis Care 

Approaches to fund mental health and substance use crisis services vary widely from state to 

state. In many cases, funding is cobbled together, inconsistently supported and inadequate when 

not aligned with best practices. One of the greatest factors contributing to these funding 

challenges is the inconsistent expectations around crisis provider service delivery; allowing 

providers who staff and operate in very different ways to utilize the same crisis stabilization 

service coding. 

Consider the nature of crisis care in systems with multiple payers. If a provider commits to fully 

align their practices to the National Guidelines for Crisis Care contained in this toolkit, then that 

provider is poorly positioned to negotiate reimbursement with each of those multiple funders in 

a region simply because the funder knows the provider will accept all referrals and serve them 

even if they do not reimburse in a manner that covers the cost of care. In these cases, it is often 

local jurisdictions who are paying part of the bill for legally or contractually responsible payer 

health plans that fall short in reimbursement. The solution is to create rate reimbursement 

structures that sustain delivery of services that align with best practice guidelines and secure 

capacity funding for community members who otherwise do not have insurance to cover critical 

care. This is not a new concept given the funding streams that exist in support of 911, fire, 

ambulance and emergency department services but it is one that must be extended for mental 

health and substance use crisis care for parity to be realized. 

In a November 13, 2018 letter from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to State 

Medicaid Directors, a path to receive a waiver on the payment exclusion for Institutions of Mental 

Disease (IMD) was offered: 

“CMS will consider a state’s commitment to on-going maintenance of effort on funding outpatient 

community-based mental health services as demonstrated in their application when determining 

whether to approve a state’s proposed demonstration project in order to ensure that resources

are not disproportionately drawn into increasing access to treatment in inpatient and residential 

settings at the expense of community-based services. Furthermore, CMS strongly encourages 

states to include in their application a thorough assessment of current availability of mental 

health services throughout the state, particularly crisis stabilization services.”

The letter clarifies that “states may receive federal matching funds for Medicaid-coverable 

services provided to individuals residing in psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment settings 

that are not ordinarily matchable because these facilities qualify as IMDs” under an approved 

demonstration project. This represents an opportunity leverage the additional federal funding in 

lieu of state payment for these IMD services; freeing up state funding to support local crisis care. 

The Firehouse Model: Crisis Care Funding vs. Emergency Care Funding 

It is revealing to compare mental health crisis care to other first responder systems like 

firefighting or emergency medical services (EMS). There are striking similarities: 

 The service is essential and may be needed by anyone in the community; 

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 The need for it is predictable over time but the timing of individual crises events is not; and 

 Effective crisis response is lifesaving and much less expensive than the consequences of 

inadequate care. 

One might measure the effectiveness of emergency medical services (EMS) in lives saved because 

of timely intervention for individuals with acute heart disease. For mental health crisis response, 

we can see the impact of comprehensive approaches in lives saved from suicide and people cared 

for effectively and more efficiently via mobile crisis visits or brief respite stays that might cost 

$300 per day versus inpatient rates of $1,000 per day. This approach better connects the 

individual to his or her community while minimizing disruption in the person’s community

connections. 

It is also useful to think about the financing of core crisis services. It would be unthinkable for any 

community, except frontier or very small ones, to go without their own fire department. Because 

this is known to be an essential public expenditure, fire stations and fire trucks are simply made 

available. Sometimes users may pay a fee for service calls but the station and the equipment are 

available to anyone in need regardless of ability to pay. In most communities, mental health crisis 

services take a different approach or are not offered at all due to the lack of coverage or 

reimbursement for this level of care. Health coverage (e.g., Medicaid) will pay for professional 

fees as if services were delivered as part of a routine office visit but few entities pay for the 

infrastructure of a crisis system with rates that reflect the “firehouse model” expenses involved 

in being available for the next call or referral. 

For those who have ever experienced a medical emergency and contacted 911 for help, they 

probably know how this plays out. Fire departments and/or an ambulance respond quickly to 

deliver emergent care. If they assess a need for further support, they may transport to the 

emergency department for care. What follows in the subsequent weeks, following care, is the 

delivery of bills or invoices for the ambulance care and transportation followed by any services 

received within the emergency department. These bills or invoices total thousands of dollars in 

most cases; expenses that represent the higher cost of offering emergent care that is accessible 

to anyone, anywhere and anytime. Unfortunately, crisis care reimbursement is often a fraction 

of that of its physical health counterparts and is, therefore, delivered in a model that falls short 

of best practice expectations or is simply not offered because there is no mechanism to 

adequately reimburse the cost of the level of care. 

A Potential Solution 

Funding crisis care through a firehouse model may be the best approach for some of these 

services while other viable options are also evolving with the implementation of parity. A leading 

solution to the crisis care funding puzzle is to model reimbursement after the physical health 

service counterparts already in place. Subsequent efforts to enforce parity laws in a manner that 

removesmuch of the burden on local communities by shifting the expense to the person’s health

insurance plan that, by law or contract, is actually responsible for covering this care will position 

crisis care to have sustainable funding streams in support of best practice care; leading to care 

that can truly lower health care costs while dramatically improving the experience of people in 

crisis and the health of communities through justice system and ED diversion. 

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Multiple Payer Systems 

The approach proposed supports reimbursement within multiple payer systems when 

responsible payers (health plans) each pay for services at rates that support operations. 

Therefore, it is recommended that states, counties or local jurisdictions establish rates for thei r 

communities that can be applied to all payers. Otherwise, local jurisdictions will be forced to 

cover the shortfall in funding from the legally or contractually responsible payers who offer lower 

reimbursement for care that is always made available to all community members. In essence, the 

lead of local government to establish reasonable reimbursement rates for best practice crisis 

services amongst all responsible payers offers a sustainable model that reduces the demand on 

communities to cover health care expenses that should be covered by an insurer; supporting the 

existing of the safety net service that is accessible in real-time when called-upon. 

Regional 24/7 Crisis Call Center Hub 

This service is really meant to serve entire regions in a manner similar to 911 call responses with 

SAMHSA delivering some funding to support this valuable resource currently. Although there is 

some ability to verify certain information identifying the caller, reimbursing for care using the 

Behavioral Health Hotline code, call center funding might be best served through a population -

based funding stream that comes from an assessment on cell phone and/or land line utilization. 

This approach would more cleanly sustain nationwide funding for this safety net service and 

implementation of advanced air traffic control-type technology in all parts of the country. 

Crisis Mobile Response Services 

Crisis mobile response services are analogous to fire and ambulance responses for emergent 

physical health issues. As such, funding mechanisms should align so that adequate capacity can 

be in place to serve communities. Given that demand is not completely predictable, there will be 

some down time for these teams and reimbursement rates must be set so that the health plan 

still realizes value in the service (largely value realized by avoiding ambulance and emergency 

department bills) while community members get better access to care. If commercial and 

Medicaid plans pay at this reasonable rate for quality care, the state, county o r city funding of 

contributions will be relatively low; particularly in states with low uninsured rates. 

Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Facility Services 

Crisis receiving and stabilization services are analogous to emergency department services but 

typically fall under a crisis stabilization coding approach that offers hourly and per diem 

reimbursement. Facilities are likely licensed outpatient programs that offer flexibility to deliver 

care to a larger number of people in smaller spaces; necessitating that service duration be limited 

to under 24 hours (often referred to as 23 hour programs). Professional fees are usually billed in 

addition to the crisis stabilization service but can be bundled if that approach is preferred. The 

benefit to separate billing of professional services is that practically all payers currently reimburse 

for these services while few outside of Medicaid recognize crisis stabilization for reimbursement 

at this time. Getting some of the expense covered by these payers (pending a better enforcement 

of the parity law) is better than none when it comes to minimizing the financial cost to the 

community served. 

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Crisis Service Coding 

Establishing a common definition for “crisisservices” is essential to this coding process given the

ever-expanding use of the term “crisis” by entities describing offeringsthat do not truly function

as no-wrong-door safety net services accepting all referrals. Crisis services include (1) crisis lines 

accepting all calls and dispatching support based on the assessed need of the caller, (2) mobile 

crisis teams dispatched to wherever the need is in the community and (3) crisis receiving and 

stabilization facilities that serve everyone that comes through their doors from all referral 

sources. These services are for anyone, anywhere and anytime. This crisis service coding 

discussion focuses solely and exclusively on the three essential crisis services. Any other service 

may offer value within the continuum of care but should not use “crisisservice” coding. 

Crisis services are designed to connect individuals to care as quickly as possible through a 

systemic approach that is comparable to that of the physical healthcare system. The table below 

provides a look at similarities between crisis services and their physical health counterparts; 

offering a framework that can be used to model reimbursement for these similar services in a 

manner consistent with public expectations of parity. 

Table 2 – Emergency and Crisis Service Analogies 

Services for Responding to a Health Crisis 

Physical Health Mental Health & Substance Use 

Emergency Call Center 911 Crisis Line 

Community-Based Response Ambulance / Fire Mobile Crisis Line 

Emergent Facility Care Emergency Dept. Crisis Receiving & Stabilization Facility 

Healthcare Coding of Crisis Services 

Coding of crisis services must be standardized to support reimbursement for these important 

services. Additionally, coding for mobile and facility-based crisis services has a clear to path to 

reimbursement much like what currently exists for ambulance and emergency department 

service providers. Although a bit different than the analogous 911 service that largely focuses on 

dispatching support, crisis line services represent an essential element of improving access to 

care that includesthe delivery of telehealth services. Here’s a brief description of these services

and a straightforward strategy for healthcare coding in each case: 

1. Crisis Call Center: This service represents the incorporation of a readily accessible crisis call 

center that is equipped to efficiently connect individuals in a mental health crisis to needed 

care; including telehealth support services delivered by the crisis line itself. Recognizing the 

provider’slimited ability to verify insurance and identification over the phone, these services 

may be best funded as a safety net resource but reimbursement for services delivered is an 

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option. The most straight-forward option is to bill for services delivered to eligible individuals 

using the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) code of H0030 - Behavioral 

Health Hotline Service. 

The limitation of the direct billing approach is that it can be very difficult to acquire the 

information adequate to verify healthcare coverage and the identity of the service recipient 

during the phone interaction. However, some level of direct billing for care could be used to 

augment the funding received by regional and state government entities to support 

operations. Crisis line providers do indeed deliver telehealth support to insured callers every 

day. Data elements such as member phone numbers of Medicaid-enrolled or privately 

insured individuals can be combined with Caller ID technology to support billing efforts. 

2. Mobile Crisis: Mobile crisis services represent community-based support where people in 

crisis are; either at home or a location in the community. Services should be billed using the 

nationally recognized HCPCS code of H2011 Crisis Intervention Service per 15 Minutes. 

Limiting the use of this code to only community-based mobile crisis team services positions a 

funder to set a reimbursement rate that represents the actual cost of delivering this safety 

net service much as it does for a fire department or ambulance service reimbursement rate. 

When applicable, transportation services should be billed separately. 

3. Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Facility: Crisis receiving and stabilization facility services 

that meet minimum expectations described in this paper are delivered by a 24/7 staffed 

multidisciplinary team that includes prescribers (psychiatrists and/or psychiatric nurse 

practitioners), nurses, clinicians and peers. Nationally recognized HCPCS codes of S9484 Crisis 

Intervention Mental Health Services per Hour and S9485 Crisis Intervention Mental Health 

Services per Diem can be used to reimburse for services delivered. Medications, radiology, 

laboratory, CPT codes and professional evaluation and treatment services may be billed 

separately or bundled into reimbursement rates. 

Table 3 – Crisis Service Coding 

Service Recommended Coding Option Approach 

Crisis Line H0030 – Behavioral Health Hotline Service and contract as a safety net resource 

to augment funding 

Mobile Crisis 

Response 

H2011 - Crisis Intervention Service per 15 minutes 

Note: The HT modifier can be utilized in combination with this code to denote a 

multi-disciplinary team if codes are used for multiple crisis delivery modalities. 

Crisis 

Stabilization 

Facility (nonhospital) 

S9484 - Crisis Intervention Mental Health Services per Hour 

S9485 - Crisis Intervention Mental Health Services per Diem 

Note: The TG modifier can be utilized to denote a complex level of care if these 

codes are utilized for multiple crisis delivery modalities 

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A Call for Parity 

Establishing universally recognized and accepting coding for crisis 

services is an essential step towards delivering on our nation’s Anyone! 

promise of parity; moving mental healthcare out of the shadows and 

into mainstream care of the whole person. Parity should be the Anywhere! 

expectation. Individuals experiencing a mental health or substance 

use crisis must have access to timely and effective care, based on the 

person’s needs, that aligns with access to care for a person with a 

Any Time! 

physical health emergency. 

Unfortunately, access to effective care during a mental health crisis is widely known to be 

deficient in healthcare settings acrossthe country. “8 in 10 ED Doctors Say Mental Health System

Is Not Working for Patients” according to a survey by the American College of Emergency

Physicians (ACEP). Thousands of Americans are dying from suicide every month and many family 

members of those coping with serious mental illness or loss of loved ones to suicide are 

experiencing unspeakable pain. Individuals with limited options are getting the wrong care in the 

wrong place with jails, EDs and inpatient care substituting for mental health crisis services and 

law enforcement is functioning as defacto mobile crisis units. 

According to the 2019 Treatment Advocacy Center published Road Runner study, more than 

$17.7 million was spent in 2017 by reporting law enforcement agencies which transported people 

with severe mental illness. If extrapolated to law enforcement agencies nationwide, this number 

is approximately $918 million or 10% of law enforcement’s annual operating budget.

Additionally, mental illness is the most prevalent disability in the United States. The time is ripe 

to solidify better access to crisis care and change these unacceptable outcomes that are adversely 

impacting communities, filling jails and crowding emergency departments. A nationally 

recognized framework for delivering a full continuum of crisis care has been established by the 

National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention Crisis Services Task Force with resources found on 

the National Association of State Mental Health Program Director’s (NASMHPD’s)

www.crisisnow.com website and healthcare coding, as defined in this document, is available to 

support reimbursement for that care 

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Assessing Adequacy of System Capacity 

Care for All Populations Throughout Lifespan 

Crisis services are meant to address the acute mental health, substance use and suicide 

prevention needs of a community. This can only be achieved by designing services that meet the 

unique needs of all members of that community. Therefore, crisis services must offer the capacity 

to address the needs of rural and urban communities that may be experiencing mental health, 

substance use, intellectual, developmental disability and co-occurring medical problems by 

accepting all at the front door. This also means offering crisis services for children, adolescents, 

adults and an aging population that each have their own unique set of needs in each community. 

Crisis Resource Need Calculator 

To lower the cost of care, enhance community health and improve the experience of residents 

needing emergent mental health and substance use services, a full continuum of care must be 

developed that includes adequate psychiatric bed capacity and community-based alternatives to 

care. The innovative Crisis Resource Need Calculator offers an estimate of optimal crisis system 

resource allocations to meet the needs of a community as well as the impact on healthcare costs 

associated with incorporation of those resources. The calculator analyzes a multitude of factors 

that includes population size, average lengths of stay in various system beds or chairs, escalation 

rates into higher levels of care, readmission rates, bed occupancy rates and local costs for those 

resources. In communities in which these resources do not currently exist, figures from like 

communities can be used to support planning purposes. 

The calculations are based on data gathered from several states. The Crisis Now Business Case 

video that explains the rationale behind the model can be seen on the National Association of 

State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD’s) www.crisisnow.com website. Quality and 

availability of outpatient services also influences demand on a crisis system so the Crisis Resource 

Need Calculator should be viewed as a guide in the design process. True assessment of system 

adequacy must include a look at overall functioning of the existing system. Signs of insufficient 

resources will include, but are not limited to, psychiatric boarding in emergency departments and 

incarceration for misdemeanor offenses when connection to care is the preferred intervention. 

The table on page 44 shows the very real cost savings that can be realized by implementing 

mobile crisis and facility-based crisis services in your community. In this table, the population of 

the community is set at 1,000,000 and if this community was working to address the acute mental 

health needs of individuals experiencing a crisis solely through inpatient care, the data indicates 

that those with LOCUS levels 5 and 6 (68%) would be referred to inpatient care. This would 

require 500 beds if the average length of stay was 10.06 days; which aligns with the Treatment 

Advocacy Center’s published consensus estimate of needing 50 bedsfor every 100,000 members

of the population. The table that follows (next page) includes a per diem inpatient rate of $900 

which would result in an inpatient cost of $164,179,200. After applying an ED cost of $1,233 per 

person to those referred to an inpatient bed (medical clearance and assessment), total estimated 

costs rise to $184,301,760. 

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For the 32% of individuals with LOCUS levels 1-4, no cost or service is included in the calculations 

although it seems unlikely no actual cost would be incurred. When mobile team and facility-based 

crisis services are included in optimal ratios (last column of table that follows), total cost drops 

by 52% in these projections despite engaging all of these individuals. This means that 32% more 

individuals are served with programs that align better to the unique level of clinical need while 

costs are reduced by 52%. Additionally, alignment of clinical level need to the service delivered 

improves from 14% to as high as 100% (please see LOCUS analysis from Georgia earlier in this 

toolkit) in a Crisis Now system that aligns with this National Guidelines for Crisis Care. 

Indicators of Insufficient Capacity 

The Crisis Resource Need Calculator offers an estimate of community resource need to help guide 

development of crisis capacity for communities. However, this is only meant to estimate need 

while true evaluation of capacity must be based on the availability of services to meet the actual 

demand of the specific community or region. Signs of insufficient resources will include, but are 

not limited to, psychiatric boarding in emergency departments, incarceration for misdemeanor 

offenses when connection to urgent care is the preferred intervention and misalignment of 

service intensity to the actual need of the individual served. Misalignment and the absence of a 

continuum of care often results in a defaulting to placement in more restrictive environments or 

minimal connection to outpatient care. 

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Page 44 of 80

Figure 1 – Crisis Resource Need Calculator

Crisis Now Crisis System Calculator Projections – Pop. 1,000,000

No Crisis Care Crisis Now

# of Crisis Episodes Annually (200/100,000 Monthly) 24,000 24,000

# Initially Served by Acute Inpatient 16,320 3,360

# Referred to Acute Inpatient From Crisis Facility - 1,336

Total # of Episodes in Acute Inpatient 16,320 4,696

# of Acute Inpatient Beds Needed 500 144

Total Cost of Acute Inpatient Beds $164,179,200 $47,237,736

# Referred to Short-Term Bed From Stabilization Chair - 5,342

# of Crisis Beds Needed - 41

Total Cost of Short Term Sub-Acute Beds - $13,356,000

# Initially Served by Crisis Stabilization Facility - 12,960

# Referred to Crisis Facility by Mobile Team - 2,304

Total # of Episodes in Crisis Facility - 15,264

# of Crisis Stabilization Chairs Needed - 48

Total Cost of Crisis Stabilization Chairs - $18,840,137

# Served Per Mobile Team Daily 4 4 

# of Mobile Teams Needed - 7 

Total # of Episodes with Mobile Team - 7,680

Total Cost of Mobile Teams - $2,761,644

# of Unique Individuals Served $16,320 24,000

TOTAL Inpatient and Crisis Cost $164,179,200 $82,195,517

ED Costs ($1,233 Per Acute Admit) $20,122,560 $5,789,675

TOTAL Cost $184,301,760 $87,985,192

TOTAL Change in Cost -52%
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit 

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Tips for System Implementation 

Workforce Development 

Communities across the nation are challenged by a limited workforce to meet the needs of 

individuals with mental health and substance use needs. On the surface, the creation of nowrong-door crisis care services would seem to create greater demand for this already strained 

workforce. However, implementation of crisis care that aligns with these best practice guidelines 

actually reduces that demand by more efficiently deploying resources, connecting to care in real 

time in a manner that minimizes the time for symptoms to escalate and the broader inclusion of 

peers as a vital workforce resource with the potential to grow more quickly than others employed 

in behavioral health care delivery. 

Crisis call center operations that incorporate air traffic control-type functioning dramatically 

increase the efficiency of the overall system. Offerings such as GPS-enabled mobile team 

dispatch, real-time bed registry with coordination into care and outpatient appointment 

scheduling all decrease the volume of mobile teams and beds needed to meet the needs of the 

community. Crisis receiving and stabilization centers that efficiently assess the needs of the 

individual and stabilize crisis episodes in less than half the time of traditional inpatient settings 

further decrease the demand on beds that must be staffed. 

In the Crisis Resource Need Calculator example, implementation of a comprehensive crisis system 

with the addition of seven mobile teams decreases the projected bed need from 500 to 233 (beds 

and chairs) for the hypothetical community of 1,000,000 residents. This translates into a 

reduction in workforce demand and it should be noted that staffing patterns that align with these 

best practice guidelines will employee peers into approximately 1/3rd of the projected positions. 

Mobile Team Staffing 

Community-based mobile crisis services use face-to-face professional and peer intervention, 

deployed in real time to the location of a person in crisis, in order to achieve the needed and best 

outcomes for that individual. Most community-based mobile crisis programs utilize teams that 

include both professional and paraprofessional staff. For example, a Master’s or Bachelor’s-level 

clinician may be paired with a peer support specialist with backup by psychiatrists or other 

master’s-level clinicians who are typically accessed for on-call support as needed. Peer support 

workers often take the lead on engagement and may also assist with continuity of care by 

providing support that continues beyond the resolution of the immediate crisis. 

In this model, almost half of the mobile team system workforce would be filled by peers who are 

more broadly available to fill roles that their licensed and/or credentialed clinician team partners 

may not be available to fill. 

Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Facility Staffing 

Crisis receiving and stabilization facilities must be staffed every hour of every day without 

exception so they will be equipped to accept any referral that comes to the program. To fulfill 

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this commitment, programs must be staffed by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in mental 

health and substance use care that includes the following: 

1. Psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners (telehealth may be used); 

2. Nurses; 

3. Licensed and/or credentialed clinicians capable of completing assessments; and 

4. Peers with lived experience similar to those of the population served. 

The innovative Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Facility Staffing Calculator (example below) can 

be used to project optimum staffing for one of these programs based on a number of variables 

that include: 

1. Percentage served under involuntary commitment; 

2. Percentage served via law enforcement drop-off; 

3. Number of admissions per day; 

4. Average length of stay; 

5. Average number of seclusion and restraints per day; 

6. Average program census; and 

7. Number of one-on-one assignments in the program. 

Figure 2 – Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Facility Staffing Calculator 

Training Crisis Team Members 

Many members of the crisis services delivery team are licensed mental health and substance use 

professionals operating within the scope of their license and training with supervision delivered 

in a manner consistent with professional expectations of the licensing board. Licensed 

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professionals are expected to strengthen their skills and knowledge through ongoing CEU and 

CME professional advancement opportunities focused on improving team members’ ability to

deliver crisis care. 

Providers also incorporate non-licensed individuals within the service delivery team; creating the 

need for additional training and supervision to ensure services are delivered in a manner that 

advances positive outcomes for those engaged in care. Verification of skills and knowledge of 

non-professional staff is essential to maintaining service delivery standards within a crisis 

program; including the incorporation of ongoing supervision with licensed professionals available 

on site at all times. Supervision and the verification of skills and knowledge shall include, but is 

not limited to, active engagement strategies, trauma-informed care, addressing recovery needs, 

suicide-safer care, community resources, psychiatric advance directives and role-specific tasks. 

Training crisis team members must include training on the National Guidelines for Crisis Care Best 

Practice Toolkit with a strong emphasis on the essential structural elements of a crisis system and 

the crisis care principles and practices that follow: 

1. Regional or statewide crisis call centers coordinating in real time; 

2. Centrally deployed, 24/7 mobile crisis; 

3. 23-hour crisis receiving and stabilization programs; and 

4. Essential crisis care principles and practices that include: 

o Addressing recovery needs, 

o Significant role for peers, 

o Trauma-informed care, 

o Suicide safer care, 

o Safety/security for staff and consumers and 

o Crisis response partnerships with law enforcement. 

All of these must be presented and learned within the context of embracing the crisis system’s

responsibility to serve as a no-wrong-door path to accessing care for all community members in 

need of immediate access to mental health and substance use care. Let the message of “Thank

you, can I have another?” remain at the forefront of every team members’ minds asthey engage

in activities that support true emergency department and justice system diversion by offering 

care that aligns with the needs of the individual engaged by the team. Providers must ensure that 

non-licensed individuals deliver services within the scope of their allowed practice with 

supervision that supports best practice care. 

Technology in Crisis Care 

Technology such as GPS-enabled mobile team dispatch, real-time bed registry and coordination, 

centralized outpatient appointment scheduling and performance dashboards that support airtraffic control-type functioning in the crisis system play an important role in solidifying crisis care. 

Additionally, telehealth is becoming increasingly important within the context of increasing 

access to limited mental health and substance use resources; particularly licensed and/or 

credentialed clinicians as well as psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners. Although this 

mode of service delivery is more prominently applied in rural and frontier communities, there is 

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also an opportunity to use this approach to establish greater efficiencies when offering 24/7 

access that may not have a consistent or high-volume flow during specific times throughout any 

given day. Application of telehealth services must align with local regulations and should continue 

to involve other members of the multi-disciplinary crisis team in face-to-face support as these 

advanced technologies are incorporated in crisis care practices. 

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System Evaluation Tools 

As communities work to implement true crisis systems of care that meet the needs of their 

residents, SAMHSA wants to ensure resources to support advancement of best practice care be 

made accessible to all. Innovative community and staffing analytic calculators and videos around 

program structure have been made available on the National Association of State Mental Health 

Program Director’s (NASMHPD’s) www.crisisnow.com website and are also published as part of 

this evidence-based practice resource page. Additionally, we have created a Crisis Service Best 

Practice Review Tool with a listing of evaluated elements included in this section of the toolkit. 

You will see that the tool is designed to evaluate the degree of implementation of essential 

element implementation tips that have been defined throughout this Toolkit. The elements are 

summarized here: 

1. Regional or statewide crisis call centers coordinating in real time: 

a. Operate every moment of every day (24/7/365); 

b. Staff with clinicians overseeing clinical triage and other trained team members to 

respond to all calls received; 

c. Answer every call or coordinate overflow coverage with a resource that also meets all 

of the minimum crisis call center expectations defined in this toolkit; 

d. Assess risk of suicide in a manner that meets NSPL standards and danger to others 

within each call; 

e. Coordinate connections to crisis mobile team services in the region; 

f. Connect individuals to facility-based care through warm hand-offs and coordination 

of transportation as needed; 

g. Incorporate Caller ID functioning; 

h. Implement GPS-enabled technology in collaboration with partner crisis mobile teams 

to more efficiently dispatch care to those in need; 

i. Implement real-time regional bed registry technology to support efficient connection 

to needed resources; and 

j. Schedule outpatient follow-up appointments in a manner synonymous with a warm 

handoff to support connection to ongoing care following a crisis episode. 

2. Centrally deployed, 24/7 mobile crisis systems: 

a. Include a licensed and/or credentialed clinician capable of assessing the needs of 

individuals within the region of operation; 

b. Respond where the person is (home, work, park, etc.) and not restrict services to 

select locations within the region or to particular days/times; 

c. Connect individuals to facility-based care through warm hand-offs and coordinating 

transportation as needed; 

d. Incorporate peers within the mobile crisis team; 

e. Respond without law enforcement accompaniment unless special circumstances 

warrant inclusion; supporting true justice system diversion; 

f. Implement real-time GPS technology in partnership with the region’s crisis call center

hub to support efficient connection to needed resources and tracking of engagement; 

and 

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g. Schedule outpatient follow-up appointments in a manner synonymous with a warm 

handoff to support connection to ongoing care. 

3. 23-hour crisis receiving and stabilization programs: 

a. Accept all referrals; 

b. Do not require medical clearance prior to admission but will assess for and support 

medical stability while in the program; 

c. Design their services to address mental health and substance use crisis issues; 

d. Employ the capacity to assess physical health needs and deliver care for most minor 

physical health challenges: 

e. Staff at all times (24/7/365) with a multidisciplinary team capable of meeting the 

needs of individuals experiencing all levels of crisis in the community; including: 

i. Psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners (telehealth may be used) 

ii. Nurses 

iii. Licensed and/or credential clinicians capable of completing assessments in the 

region; and 

iv. Peers with lived experience similar to those of the population served. 

f. Offer walk-in and first responder drop-off options; 

g. Be structured in a manner that offers capacity to accept all referrals, understanding 

that facility capacity limitations may result in occasional exceptions when full, with a 

no-rejection policy for first responders; 

h. Screen for suicide risk and complete comprehensive suicide risk assessments and 

planning when clinically indicated; 

i. Function as a 24 hour or less crisis receiving and stabilization facility; 

j. Offer a dedicated first responder drop-off area; 

k. Incorporate some form of intensive support beds into a partner program (could be 

own program or another provider) to support timely transitions to secure placement 

for individuals who need additional support; 

l. Include beds within the real-time regional bed registry system operated by the crisis 

call center hub to support efficient connection to needed resources; and 

m. Coordinate connection to ongoing care. 

4. Essential crisis care principles and practices: 

a. Addressing recovery needs, 

b. Significant role for peers, 

c. Trauma-informed care, 

d. Zero Suicide/suicide safer care, 

e. Safety/security for staff and consumers and 

f. Crisis response partnerships with law enforcement. 

Monitoring System and Provider Performance 

In addition to monitoring fidelity to the National Guidelines of Crisis Care, funders, system 

administrators and crisis service providers should continuously evaluate performance through 

the use of shared data systems. System transparency and regularly monitoring of key 

performance indicators supports continuous quality improvement efforts. It is highly 

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recommended that systems connect data in a manner that offer real-time views of agreed-upon 

system and provider-level dashboards that can also be used to support alternative payment 

reimbursement approaches focused on value. Performance metrics should include the following: 

 Crisis Call Center Services: 

o Call volume, 

o Average speed of answer, 

o Average delay, 

o Average length of call, 

o Call abandonment rate, 

o Percentage of calls resolved by phone, 

o Number of mobile teams dispatched, 

o Number of individuals connected to a crisis or hospital bed, and 

o Number of first responder-initiated calls connected to care. 

 Crisis Mobile Services: 

o Number served per 8-hour shift, 

o Average response time, 

o Percentage of callsresponded to within 1 hour... 2 hours, 

o Longest response time, and 

o Percentage of mobile crisis responses resolved in the community. 

 Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Services: 

o Number served (could be a measure of individuals served per chair daily), 

o Percentage of referrals accepted, 

o Percentage of referrals from law enforcement (hospital and jail diversion), 

o Law enforcement drop-off time, 

o Percentage of referrals from all first responders, 

o Average length of stay, 

o Percentage discharge to the community, 

o Percentage of involuntary commitment referrals converted to voluntary, 

o Percentage not referred to emergency department for medical care, 

o Readmission rate, 

o Percentage completing an outpatient follow-up visit after discharge, 

o Total cost of care for crisis episode, 

o Guest service satisfaction, and 

o Percentage of individuals reporting improvement in ability to manage future crisis. 

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Marketing and Communication Efforts 

The evolution of true crisis care services is essential to improving the health of our communities. 

Comprehensive crisis systems that align with these best practice guidelines offer universal realtime access to the most appropriate services, supports and resources to decrease the utilization 

of 911, emergency departments and jail for individuals experiencing mental health and substance 

use emergencies. Critical to the success of these services is an effective marketing strategy and 

campaign to inform communities of their existence and educate how to access the services when 

needed. 

To evolve marketing and communication plans that effectively meet the community education 

objectives, communities are encourage to engage broad stakeholder groups that should 

minimally include law enforcement, hospitals with emergency departments, fire departments, 

ambulance providers, mental health advocacy agencies, community health providers, faith-based 

communities, schools, health plans, local Medicaid team members, those engaged in the service 

delivery system and their families. 

The goal of these dialogs is to create public information materials and educational marketing 

campaign strategies that translate into regional and statewide crisis system resource access 

educational efforts with specific details on how the three core elements of the crisis system (crisis 

line, crisis mobile and crisis receiving and stabilization facilities) offer immediate access to care 

for anyone in the community through a no-wrong-door safety net system. 

Minimum elements of a successful plan marketing and communication plan include: 

1. Evaluation of educational and marketing services for various age groups and other 

targeted populations; 

2. Key metrics that can be used to assess the impact of marketing strategies along with an 

evaluation plan to determine the effectiveness of the statewide and regional marketing 

strategies; 

3. Distribution of materials based on the collaboratively developed marketing and 

communication plan; 

4. Assessment of effectiveness of the plan and adjustment of the approach as needed; and 

5. Ongoing meetings with key stakeholders, including first responders, local hospitals and 

health plans, to support appropriate diversion from emergency departments and justice 

systems. 

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Conclusion 

Crisis services must be designed to serve anyone, anywhere and anytime. Communities that 

commit to this approach and dedicate resources to address the community need decrease 

psychiatric boarding in emergency departments and reduce the demands on the justice system. 

These two benefits translate into better care, better health outcomes and lower costs to the 

community. The National Guidelines for Crisis Care – A Best Practice Toolkit delivers a roadmap 

that can be used to truly make a positive impact to communities across the country. 

For crisis services to work effectively, the handoff from law enforcement must be quick, with 

assessment occurring after—and not before—the handoff takes place. There must be a full 

partnership with the community and an understanding by community partners, particularly law 

enforcement, of how crisis services can most effectively work to divert individuals from 

hospitalization and longer-term engagement with the criminal justice system. 

Once the individual is engaged, treatment must be trauma and recovery-informed and engage 

peers with lived experience who can serve as mentors and models. Zero Suicide and safer-suicide 

must be a central focus. 

But an effective crisis services program must be sustainable and sustainability requires a 

sustainable funding mechanism, supported by formal funding codes, that is not wholly 

dependent on the innovative braiding of small streams of revenue. Commitment by the 

community and state and local governments is essential for crisis services to remain an important 

element of the continuum of care for individuals in behavioral health crisis. And of course, any 

continuous funding stream requires continuous quality improvement of the system to ensure 

that it is effective and cost-effective, using current best evidence to produce positive outcomes 

that ensure clients will find their way to recovery. 

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Continuous Quality Improvement & Innovation 

Case Study #1 

In 2014, Connections Health Solutions began operating the crisis stabilization programs inside 

the Crisis Response Center in Tucson, Arizona. It seems self-evident that crisis services should 

offer timely, high quality care to people experiencing a psychiatric emergency. The response must 

match the need. Remember the opening theme to the long running NBC hit ER: everyone is 

running because lives depend on it. 

Dr. Margie Balfour found the reality of crisis services was often the exact opposite. It can take 

hours or even days in an emergency department to be “medically cleared” before entrance is

granted to many of the nation’s “crisis stabilization” programs. Law enforcement and first 

responders are expected to take the person in crisis to the hospital first, not the crisis unit. It 

should be noted that these programs do not represent crisis receiving and stabilization facilities 

as defined in this Crisis Service Best Practice Toolkit. 

The experience of the more than 13,000 individuals that utilized the services of the Crisis 

Response Center each year had been uneven. There were often long delays in the clinical triage 

area while the patient awaited a decision on whether he or she would be admitted or discharged. 

Frustration abounded. The result was a decrease in safety that manifested as increases in injuries 

and assaults. Individuals in crisis were sometimes left unattended for long periods of time and 

staff were spread areas amongst multiple program areas. Security was frequently involved. 

Lean Six Sigma in Action 

There was a significant need to improve and speed the triage process but there was a lack of 

agreement on the mission of the facility. Dr. Balfour and the Connections Health Solutions team 

met with the leadership and front-line staff in a series of town-hall meetings, conducted rounds 

in the facility to interview patients and staff, and worked shifts to view the experience up close 

and personal. The result of this process was a singular mission: Meet the immediate needs of 

those in behavioral health crisis in a safe and supportive environment. 

In order to re-engineer the Crisis Response Center for this new mission, Dr. Balfour and the team 

incorporated a Lean Six Sigma approach to quality improvement. Motorola and Toyota both 

revolutionized process improvement by eliminating waste and improving the flow of 

manufacturing and by building upon the pioneering work of Edwards Deming in the 1950s (think 

Plan-Do-Study-Act). Healthcare has been slow to catch the vision and crisis care for behavioral 

health has been characterized by “crisis programs” that do not actually operate as emergency or 

crisis service options that serve all in need. These programs that do not align with best practice 

guidelines are characterized by waiting for care and clearance or screening to initiate an oftenlengthy process. 

The team began by establishing some assumptions. They would achieve gains with the existing 

resources and staff by standardizing the process and eliminating the waste of inefficient 

practices. They also introduced a number of interventions that include improved dashboard 

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tracking tools. Next, they analyzed wasted time and function. What were the tasks that added 

value? What were the tasks that added little value but were nevertheless required (by licensure, 

contract, etc.)? And finally, what were the tasks that were unnecessary and simply represented 

waste? 

The value analysis found that the old process required almost 11 hours to connect to needed 

care and that nearly 40% of this process was simply unnecessary and non-value added. Wasted 

time for individuals and family members dealing with a behavioral health crisis. Idly sitting in the 

waiting room comprised a significant portion of this time but there were also inefficiencies in 

some of the tasks of the crisis provider. 

The Results 

The Connections Health Solutions team reduced the “door to door dwell times.” The average 

time spent in the triage clinic decreased from seven hours to two hours and the time in the 23-

hour unit decreased by 30%; improving not only the patient experience but also the capacity of 

the facility to serve the community by more efficiently serving those in need. 

Even if you haven’t been in a psychiatric crisis, most everyone has been to the emergency room

and the key metric we all remember from the experience remains with us... how long did it take

usto see the doctor? Dr. Balfour’steam reduced the waiting time by nearly 80%. These significant

gains had other cascading benefits. For example, the facility dramatically reduced the time it 

spent on diversion from referrals due to operating at full capacity so that it could better serve 

the needs of those in crisis in the greater Tucson area. Assaults to staff and calls to security were 

also dramatically reduced and the changes in process yielded additional space availability. The 

building was remodeled to take advantage of these improvements and the capacity of the 

temporary observation unit was increased by 36% to further increase capacity in a manner that 

supports their commitment to accept all referrals. 

Dr. Balfour believes there were several key ingredients in their Tucson Arizona success. They 

engaged everyone from top leadership to the line staff. They kept compliance and quality 

functions separate and obtained Lean Six Sigma green belt certification for quality staff while 

building the IT and data system necessary to track and report accurately. 

The metric that brings all this into focus is the law enforcement drop-off turnaround time. First 

responders do not take people in crisis to the emergency room first. They drive straight to crisis 

facilities in Phoenix or Tucson where they spend less than 10 minutes before returning to their 

patrol. Connections Health Services measures performance and progress through the levels 

below. 

Levels of Accomplishment 

Level 1 Everyone in the organization/department knows what the unit’s core processes are.

Level 2 Each core process is fundamentally documented. 

Level 3 The primary customer requirements of each process are documented and 

conformance to spec is tracked. 

Level 4 The primary control factors that drive desired performance for each process are 

documented and tracked. 

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Level 5 Each process can be documented to be behaving asintended (e.g., is “in control”).

Level 6 Each process is completely standardized, in control, and has an on-going continuous 

improvement plan. 

Dr. Margie Balfour’s article “Crisis Reliability Indicators Supporting Emergency Services (CRISES): 

A Framework for Developing Performance Measures for Behavioral Health Crisis and 

Psychiatric Emergency Programs,” Community Mental Health Journal, 2015 (download here), 

includes the outcomes model below. 

Figure 3 – Crisis Reliability Indicators Supporting Emergency Services Framework 

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Case Study #2 

In 1996, Recovery Innovations, Inc. (dba RI International) created its first Crisis Recovery Center 

just outside Phoenix, Arizona in the west valley city of Peoria. Like many similar Crisis Stabilization 

Programs across the country, it offered an alternative to acute inpatient, jail and emergency 

departments (EDs), a place where a mental health crisis could be handled by professionals as 

immediately as possible. 

This program was an improvement, but it still had some of the issues that plague crisis care in 

EDs. It focused too much on procedures and diagnoses and too little on engagement and 

collaboration, which are vitally important for the individual in a mental health crisis. The hospital 

model was designed to treat disease and injury and RI set out to develop a new and unique 

approach that would handle the needs of those in debilitating emotional pain. 

In 2002, RI began its evolution of the Crisis Recovery Center with the development of the Living 

Room model. It featured a strong focus on good contact with the person in distress and 

introduced new staff types as well. Certified Peer Specialists brought their own experience in 

mental health crisis and recovery and empathic and trauma-informed care into the 

interdisciplinary team. 

The facility transformed from a colder, more sterile, traditional medical setting to have a warm 

inviting feel. Individuals were referred to as guests and not consumers. The teams began quality 

improvement efforts to reduce the prevalence of seclusion and restraint. And, overall, the Living 

Room felt more like home than an institution. 

Still, there was the potential to make real community impact, since most acute cases were being 

diverted to traditional crisis facilities, i.e., hospitals and jails. In 2014, the leadership at Mercy 

Care, the health plan tasked by the Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment System (AHCCCS, the 

Arizona Medicaid authority), challenged RI to adopt the never-reject approach to law 

enforcement drop-offs. 

At that time, RI was receiving 100 to 150 law enforcement drop-offs per month, but they were 

also diverting individuals that were deemed inappropriate. If there was concern about a medical 

challenge, primary substance use problem, history of aggressive behaviors, etc., law enforcement 

was instructed to take the person to a different facility. This approach required law enforcement 

to wait around while decisions were made (an approach leadersin LAPD have coined “wall time”)

and then transport them after evaluation. 

RI determined to fully adopt the new approach. The facility already had a special law enforcement 

drop-off admission room that was attached directly to the 23-hour temporary observation and 

treatment unit. A lighted sign directed the officer to park directly adjacent to the unit where they 

could easily walk the individual in crisis a few short steps to immediate access. 

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The new approach meant that the officer would never be asked to wait for an evaluation. A peer 

leader would greet the individual and introductions would be made. The law enforcement officer 

would share any paperwork, if available, and exit to return to the work of public safety within 

three to five minutes. 

RI leadership was concerned about the potential loss of the Living Room culture and experience 

but also fully grasped the stronger community impact of a true no-wrong-door approach. And, 

the Fusion Model was born, combining the direct and safe access of a hospital ED with the 

recovery-oriented approach of the Living Room. 

Figure 4 – Peoria, Arizona Crisis Recovery Center Law Enforcement Drop-Offs 

In late 2019, RI will admit the 20,000th consecutive guest who is dropped off by law enforcement, 

without a single rejection for any reason. While there have occasionally been guests who had a 

medical complication that was not obvious to the law enforcement officer, and that required 

more intensive hospital attention, additional treatment was organized by the Crisis Recovery 

Center, including transportation where appropriate. None of this was delegated to law 

enforcement, which has been immediately released to return to duty following a referral. 

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The graphic on the previous page demonstrates the increase in the total number of individuals 

in a crisis served by the program and law enforcement referral activity over the time period that 

this model was adopted. With 32 licensed chairs in the 23-hour observation and treatment 

program and 16 beds in the sub-acute crisis program, the law enforcement drop-off number 

doubled over the time-frame. Always accepting law enforcement referrals increases officer trust 

that making a drive to the facility is preferable to other traditional options, i.e., jail, hospital, 

relocation, etc. 

Today, 80% of all guests received by the program are referred by law enforcement, and none of 

them first visited a hospital ED for medical clearance. The program has literally not refused a 

single police referral in the past five years, despite over half being involuntary. But unlike entering 

a hospital or jail, these individuals in crisis are immediately greeted by a peer staff who orients 

them to the care they will receive. There is active engagement and collaboration throughout their 

stay, and they become active participants. 

In the Fusion Model, crisis becomes an event to be resolved and stabilized, versus a diagnosis to 

be treated. And, since law enforcement engages in zero wall time by by-passing the ER 

completely and is back on the street in less than five minutes, the burden on police is eased and 

the experience for the person in crisis is improved. 

Figure 5 - Crisis Recovery Centers implementing the Fusion Model Across Several States 

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Addendum 

Interview 1 Wesley Sowers, MD 

Ahead of the Curve: LOCUS Is as Relevant Today as It Was in the Nineties 

In the mid-1990s, Wesley Sowers, MD, was the medical director for St. Francis Medical Center in 

Pittsburgh, the largest addiction treatment center in Pennsylvania at the time. A tug-of-war was 

brewing between clinicians and managed care plans over who got to determine what was best 

for clients. Dr. Sowers, who is now the director for the Center for Public Service Psychiatry at the 

University of Pittsburgh, says clinicians showed considerable variability in decision-making, which 

didn’t always include judicious use of resources and often resulted in more extensive hospital 

stays than people needed. 

“There wasn’t much thought about how we could use resources most effectively.” This began to

manifest in burgeoning costs of care and was one of the reasons state and local governments, as 

well as private insurers, started to examine ways to control costs. The behavioral health 

community understandably feared that these limitations would harm treatment quality, and 

clinicians worried that managed care would eliminate their autonomy. “Both had a rationale

behind what they were doing and why they were doing it. While managed care reforms were 

needed, many went too far.” Dr. Sowers, who had long been interested in systems, believed there

was a sweet spot where balance could be achieved, and so he began to develop a mechanism 

that would determine best outcomes for people and systems of care: a win-win in facilitating 

person-centered care and cost-effective resource use. 

Examining how to optimize treatment quality and manage costs, Dr. Sowers attempted to 

develop an integrated medical necessity tool to help match patient need with the appropriate 

service intensity. He also wanted to create a structure that was as effective for people with 

addictive disorders as those with mental health issues, closing a divide perpetuated in behavioral 

health. “I was interested in co-occurring disorders and wanted to consider the interaction of 

mental illness, addiction, and physical issuesthat might affect people’streatment response.” Dr. 

Sowers’ answer was to design a comprehensive system that focused on seven assessment 

dimensions: risk of harm; functional status; medical, addictive and psychiatric comorbidity; 

recovery environment (this dimension has two subscales: level of stress and level of support); 

treatment and recovery history; and engagement and recovery status. These became the core of 

the Level of Care Utilization System known as LOCUS. With input and support from the American 

Association of Community Psychiatrists (AACP), Dr. Sowers developed an algorithm in 1996 that 

makes it simple for clinicians to provide best-fit recommendations for care intensity. A rating in 

each dimension ranges from lowest to highest need: from 1 to 5, respectively. The clinician then 

adds the numbers for each dimension together, resulting in a composite score that indicates a 

person’s degree of need and the corresponding level of care required. Scoresrange from 7 asthe

lowest possible level of need and 35 as the highest. 

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Once LOCUS identifies the correct level of care in the continuum, providers can select from a 

menu of services tailored to a person’s particular needs. Menu items include clinical services, 

supportive services or crisis resolution and prevention services and describe the conditions of the 

care environment. Dr. Sowers says that, on average, a person with a lower composite score 

wouldn’t have the same need-intensity as a person with a higher one, but that isn’t always the

case. He says the first three dimensions—risk of harm, functional status, and comorbidity—

include overriding concerns. If a person scores high in these critical areas, the algorithm will alter 

recommendations accordingly, pairing the person with an increased level of service. “There is a

composite score and treatment grid that gives cliniciansthe correct placement. It’s easy to use.”

Dr. Sowers never anticipated it would work so well and has been pleasantly surprised at how 

widespread adoption has been; not just when it was developed it in the 1990s but in the decades 

since. Unlike most innovations, LOCUS is a tool that is as applicable today as when it began. Since 

their inception, LOCUS and CALOCUS (the Child and Adolescent counterpart) have gone through 

revisions to improve accessibility and clarity. “Along the way, we have asked people to tell us 

what doesn’t work and what could be improved.” Interestingly, he saysthat overthe years, there

hasn’t been much need to change the rating system, but there have been minor adjustmentsto

service intensity and level of care descriptions. “It has been a 20-plus-year process, and LOCUS is 

continually picking up momentum.” Part of the reason, he says, is that while many cliniciansstill

use paper and pencil, the automated version is increasingly used and preferred, particularly as 

hospitals and treatment centers move toward electronic medical records. 

Though the use of LOCUS is widespread, Dr. Sowersisn’t sure how comprehensively clinicians are 

using it. He built the system to span the service array and care continuum. The clinical structure 

translates from one level of care to the next and easily lends itself to a person-centered care and 

recovery paradigm. Dr. Sowers says there should be ongoing, continuous assessment throughout 

a person’s treatment experience. “Using surveys, we have tried to determine whether there is 

full LOCUS use, but it hasn’t yielded much information. Anecdotally, we can tell that many

organizations only use it in a crisis setting, in some residential facilities, or in inpatient settings 

instead of along the entire continuum of care.”

Using LOCUS in limited settings doesn’t maximize its potential. Unlike alternative tools, the 

assessment takes into consideration prior responses to treatment and social and interpersonal 

determinants of functional impairment. Dr. Sowers says he and the AACP designed the system to 

guide continuous treatment planning, giving clinicians an indication of what needs to be 

improved upon to move a person down to a lower, less restrictive level of care. The objective is 

to follow the person as he or she moves through different care levels, tracking not only individual 

progress but also the entire system of clinical management. “It clarifies and unifies what we do

in clinical settings, allowing us to identify the correct level of care for a person and the most costeffective measuresthat ensure the best outcomes.”

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Interview 2 Sandra Schneider, MD, FACEP 

Emergency Mental Health is a Throwback of the 1950s Emergency Department 

Sandra Schneider, MD, FACEP, a past President of the American College of Emergency Physicians 

(ACEP), says current day emergency mental health is reminiscent of the 1950s Emergency 

Department. It is a throwback, she says, in dire need of an upgrade. 

What we know of today as the Emergency Department, shortened to ED by those in the field, 

began to take shape immediately after World War II. The climate in the United States at the time 

held lingering remnants of recent conflict and economic depression. At the same time, the 

innovation of the interstate highway made opportunity boundless, offering Americans a fresh 

start and quickly changing the face of medicine. Specialists who used large equipment they 

couldn’t transport replaced family doctors and their small, black bags. These doctors had office

hours and didn’t make house calls. If an emergency arose, people went to the hospital. The ED

started as a room in a hospital basement called ‘The Pit.’ It was overcrowded and run by some of

the least experienced physicians who were treating the most dangerous situations, often 

resulting in grave consequences. [1] Dr. Schneider says that since then emergency medicine has 

made remarkable strides in every specialty area except mental health. The reasons for stagnancy, 

she says, are vague diagnostic criteria, challenges in case follow-up, lack of warm handoffs, and 

unlike all other specialties, emergency medicine physicians and psychiatrists have not had 

decades of collaboration. 

Partnerships and the Golden Period of Intervention 

While the direst situations were brought to the ED in the 1950s, specialists often failed to give 

patients timely care because they were on call for their practices. In 1961, Dr. James D. Mills 

realized that emergency medicine needed to be a specialization in and of itself. He convinced 

three of his coworkers to leave private practice to develop an ED alongside him in Alexandria, 

Virginia, becoming full-time emergency physicians working 12-hour shifts 5-day a week. 

Simultaneously, a group of 23 doctors in Pontiac, Michigan, did the same, working part-time to 

staff the ED at Pontiac General Hospital 24-hours a day. 

Dr. Mills and his colleagues were the first to do this full time and say,” Hey, this works for patients 

and us.” Dr. Mills would call in a surgeon to do surgery or a pediatrician if the patient was young, 

fostering a partnership between ED physicians and specialists. Patients spent about the first 30 

minutes with the ED physician and the next half-hour with a specialist, allowing emergency 

medicine physicians to learn: first through observation, then by consulting with specialists on the 

phone until finally, they could generally handle the cases themselves. Today, Emergency 

Department (ED) physicians often do procedures and no longer need specialists to come in and 

perform them. For example, says Dr. Schneider, ED physicians do far more intubations than many 

physicians in internal medicine or even anesthesiologists who predominantly do outpatient work. 

No such leaps have happened in psychiatric emergency medicine. She says the result is that ED 

staff often don’t identify and fail to treat mental health crises during critical intervention periods.

Emergency medicine physicians believe the first 30 minutes to an hour to be the most critical for 

outcomes, calling it the golden hour of intervention. For example, if a person has a stroke, ED 

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staff have about three hours to get the clot-busting drug tPA (tissue Plasminogen Activator) into 

the patient. “If that doesn’t happen, the person is out-of-luck.” In the case of a heart attack,

doctors have a 90-minute window to intervene. Partnerships with specialists have allowed ED 

physicians to fully utilize the golden hour of intervention, improving outcomes and mortality and 

allowing patients a far better chance of leading normal lives. 

Dr. Schneider says that in mental health, she and her colleagues understand that the longer a 

person is in psychosis, the more challenging it is to reverse. “It may not be a golden hour but

more like golden days or even a week, but there is a critical window for intervention, especially 

in high acuity suicidality and psychosis.”

Pattern Recognition and Follow-up 

Emergency medicine physicians have learned through patterns, and, with the help of specialists, 

what is best to do during the golden hour of intervention. The field has developed through 

partnership, follow-up, and pattern recognition. That is not the case for psychiatry, which Dr. 

Schneider says is the least rote specialty. She can look at an EKG and see that the patient is 

experiencing a heart attack, or, if a patient comes in and cannot lift his arm and is not using his 

leg, he might have a seven on the Stroke Scale. Or if the person’s blood count islow, he may need

a blood transfusion. Through pattern recognition, training, and established intervention, Dr. 

Schneider can determine a person’s critical needs. 

Psychiatry is not as transparent. “I may have a patient who isn’t making sense or is depressed,

but there is no serum delirium or depression score for me to determine the level of acuity. We’ve 

not been trained and, as a result, never figured out the pattern recognition like we have in all 

other specialties. For many of us, our background is the month we spent on psychiatry in 

residency, so we feel out of our comfort zone.” She saysthisis compounded by vague psychiatric 

diagnostic criteria, the components of which most emergency medicine physicians do not 

understand and minimal, if any, feedback after a handoff. Pattern recognition, says Dr. Schneider, 

is not just developed by working alongside specialists but also through follow-up. Dr. Schneider 

says that doesn’t happen with psychiatric patients. If a patient has a rash that the ED physician

suspects is a melanoma, she can follow-up and find out if she was correct, which helps to improve 

pattern recognition. On the other hand, if she wants to know whether she was right about the 

acuity of a patient’s suicidality, that information is not accessible. “The result is we don’t gain

critical follow-up knowledge on psychiatric crisis.”

No Warm Handoff 

One challenge, says Dr. Schneider, is that while it is impossible to see the level of acuity in mental 

health, ED physicians realize that lack of bleeding does not mean it is not a high acuity case. The 

result is ED physicians often default to an assumption of high acuity, triggering numerous 

challenges for patients, including hospitalization and the corresponding trauma of 

institutionalization, stigma, and the detrimental impact on the patient’s employment, finances, 

and personal life. 

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Part of the reason for defaulting to high acuity is the result of an ‘it’s-better-to-be-safe-thansorry’ mentality, but it is also because ED physicians are not always confident that the patient 

will get the care she needs if discharged. Dr. Schneider says that more than any other specialty, 

there is a disconnect on what comes next for the patient. For example, if a patient comes in with 

appendicitis, the ED physician can call a surgeon. In the case of a rash, the ED has a roster of 

dermatologists and clinics, and in many cases, the physician can even make an appointment for 

the patient. These partnerships create confidence in the system and an appeals process if the ED 

doctor doesn’t agree with the specialist:the emergency medicine physician and specialist can get 

on the phone and discuss the case. 

Dr. Schneider says this communication does not exist between most EDs and the mental health 

system, making navigating it incredibly difficult for ED staff. She says if she has a patient with 

depression who is feeling suicidal and needs mental health care in the next couple of days, she 

has no idea how to get them what they need. 

The same is true for substance abuse. “Let’s say a person with an opioid use disorder comes in 

and has managed to withdraw but needs help for his addiction. All most ED physicians can do is 

hand him a list of addiction centers to start calling in the morning. Can you imagine if we did that 

with any other medical issue? If someone comes in with chest pain, I can get them set up with a 

stress test the next day, regardlessif she has insurance. Why isit with mental health it’s okay to

give patients a list and say, ‘Good luck’?” Emergency medicine physicians need to be able to do

a handoff and have confidence in that handoff. “If there is someone to evaluate the patient, but 

I don’t know the person and whether he or she hasmade the right decision forthe patient, that’s

not a warm handoff.”

Dr. Schneider says now is the time to improve the relationship between the ED and psychiatry 

because she believes emergency medicine physicians will soon be playing an increasingly critical 

role. The approved use of intervention medications, such as Ketamine and Brexanolone, for 

depression and postpartum depression, means that ED physicians will be able to decrease acuity 

with medication so that patients can go home and seek care within a week or so. She says it is 

similar to how the ED addresses patients with atrial fibrillation (A Fib) or a blood clot. Physicians 

diagnose, stop, and often reverse the emergency, before sending the patient to primary care. 

“We would acutely treat them and do a warm handoff.”

Replicating the Poison Center Model in Emergency Mental Health 

Dr. Schneider recommends that mental health mirror the poison control center. Each center has 

a medical director and pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and toxicologists that answers the phone 

24/7. If a physician is unfamiliar with the drug a patient took, the center will triage the call to a 

Specialist in Poison Information (the specialists are called SPIs, pronounced spies). For example, 

if a person took Banamine, a horse anti-inflammatory, the ED physician can call a poison control 

center and speak with an SPI who has access to a vast database that lists all chemicals and 

outcomes in previous exposures. The SPI would tell the ED physician what’s happened in previous

cases such as: “Above this amount we’ve seen these problems so you should watch the person

for kidney function.” Ifthe situation ismore complicated because the person took more than one

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drug, then the ED physician’s call would be forwarded to the toxicologist. (Typically, only 1 out 

100 calls escalate to the toxicologist.) 

The SPI also does follow-up and tracks outcomes. For example, if the person who took Banamine 

had a seizure, the SPI would add that to the database. They would also call the patient and ask 

how the person is doing and see if he or she needs an appointment. If a child drank bleach, the 

SPI would speak with the parents, telling them that they are not bad parents, and talking them 

through how to prevent the incident from happening again. They can even address more obscure 

poisonings. If a person eats a rare mushroom, the center will get the caller in touch with a 

mycologist (mushroom expert), local resources for dialysis, and the best hospital to care for the 

patient. The idea is that no matter where the person is at that moment, experts will be reached 

and local resources provided. 

Psychiatric Triage with a Mental Health Center 

Dr. Schneider says a similar structure for mental health would allow ED physicians to speak to 

experts and have strong confidence in their abilities. The call could be from an ED doctor who is 

uncomfortable giving Suboxone, a blockbuster medication that reduces symptoms of opiate 

addiction and withdrawal, for the first time. The mental health center would go through a 

checklist and then provide a dosage recommendation. If it does not work, the ED doctor would 

call back, and the center would walk her through the next dose. They would also give guidance 

on more complex cases. 

Suppose a patient has depression but no suicidal plan, a supportive family, and no lethal 

weapons. The mental health center expert might recommend the patient be discharged and 

meet with a mental health worker the next day. If the ED physician is not comfortable sending 

the patient home, a psychiatrist for the center could get on a video call. Dr. Schneider believes 

the escalation rate would be similar to that at poison centers: roughly 1 out of 100 calls would 

triage to the psychiatrist. After the video chat with the patient, the psychiatrist might recommend 

he be admitted, and help with the process, or say the patient can go home, but the center would 

call him in the morning to arrange an appointment. “ED physicians spend 15 minutes with a

patient. We aren’t going be able to add a 30-minute psychiatric evaluation, but the center would 

give us access to experts and a database of resources. It closes the loop of care and is the warm 

handoff that gives us confidence that patients will get the care they need.”

Sources: 

[1] 24|7|365: The Evolution of Emergency Medicine. Retrieved March 11, 2019, from https://www.emra.org/aboutemra/publications/legacy-documentary 

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Interview 3 Shelby Rowe 

The Elephant in the Room: Mental Health Professionals Experience Crisis Too 

When Shelby Rowe realized she needed help in September 2010, she called a close friend, asking 

the friend to drive her to a hospital out-of-state. As the executive director of the Arkansas Crisis 

Center, Rowe didn’t want to run into anyone she worked with or had trained. Her distress had 

been slowly escalating, culminating in months filled with ruminating flashbacks and anxiety. Her 

marriage was quickly unraveling, triggering trauma from when she’d been in a similar position.

Years prior, during her first marriage, Rowe and her husband had a terrible argument, and he 

left. Thirty-minuteslatershe received a call that tragedy had occurred: while at a friend’s house,

someone accidentally shot and killed her husband. “The last time I’d been in this situation, 

someone I loved died. During ourfight, I’d told my husband, ‘I hate you and wish you were dead.’ 

A half an hour later he was. Years later, at the end of my marriage, I feared if I walked away, one 

of us was going to die. It didn’t make sense, and I knew that, but it didn’t lessen my fear.”

As Rowe spent her days overseeing the implementation of the Arkansas plan for suicide 

prevention and running the center that operated the state’s only 24/7 crisis hotline, she was

simultaneously experiencing increased distress. To mitigate it, she applied the coping skills she 

taught others, but it wasn’t enough. Her expertise in suicide prevention made her achingly aware

that she was experiencing hopelessness, but Rowe questioned her symptoms: how could she, a 

mental health expert aware of critical interventions, be at risk? She wasn’t the only one applying

scrutiny as her therapist told Rowe, “You don’t need hospitalization because you’re aware of

what you’re experiencing.” The therapist, and other mental health experts Rowe came across 

during her crisis, assumed, because of her expertise, that she was a lower suicide risk than she 

was and knew what to look out for and do for herself during a crisis. “A mental health professional

may know the signs and what to share with others, but it’s challenging to apply those skills to

one’s own crisis. That’s why people don’t treat themselves.”

As Rowe’s symptoms increased, she performed the assessment she did with callers, asking

herself, “When is the last time you ate or slept? How long do you think you can keep yourself 

safe?” The answers weren’t comforting. She knew it was time to seek help. In the hospital, she

received what would generally pass as good care—she met with the therapist daily and the 

psychiatrist every other day—but they failed to address what was at the core of her crisis, PostTraumatic Stress Disorder from her first husband’s death and childhood traumas. In the high-risk 

months following the hospital stay, Rowe continued to experience ruminating thoughts and felt 

frustrated that she couldn’t just shake them off. She felt despairsettle in her bones with no end

in sight. “Hospitalization isn’t a magic wand, and I came back feeling more hopeless because the

experience hadn’t changed how I felt, and now there was an additional hospital bill burden to 

figure out.” Rowe wondered if this was how life would be from this point forward, getting angry

at herself for not being able to control her PTSD. “It wasthe night before Thanksgiving, and I went 

into the bathroom, looked at myself in the mirror, and said, ‘I hope I neversee you again.’ I then

made an attempt on my life.” Rowe woke up two dayslater in bed, not knowing what happened.

Her 19-year-old son was home and said, “Oh, you’re up. You missed Thanksgiving.” She asked

why he didn’t take her to the hospital, and he said, “I didn’t want you to get fired.”

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It took four years before Rowe publicly shared her story, doing so because she felt there was a 

great need for more people in the mental health profession to speak about their experiences. 

What people often don’t understand, she says, is that just because a person survives a suicide

attempt doesn’t mean she’s committed to living. It took years, separate from public scrutiny, to

set the groundwork for healing and learn to acknowledge her feelings and not be angry at herself, 

which reaped a highly favorable outcome: a release from fearing failure. Before that, Rowe felt 

embarrassed and thought her suicide attempt was an indication she should no longer work in 

mental health. Fortunately, Rowe’s therapist when hospitalized reassured her that the field

needed her perspective and expertise. He told her, “I would hire you.” This shifted Rowe’s

perception because he could have easily suggested she pick a different career path. “I’m not

certain I’d be working in thisfield today if it weren’t for the fact that, in my moment of crisis, this

person believed in my ability to do my job and to play a meaningful role in mental health.” Even

so, Rowe did initially have concerns about coming out as an attempt survivor because wellintentioned colleagues, some of whom heard of or directly had negative experiences when 

coming forward, warned her not to go public with her story. 

The final push for Rowe to speak about her suicide attempt was the release of The Way Forward 

Report in 2014 by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention’s Suicide Attempt Survivors

Task Force. They were putting together 60-second YouTube videos featuring attempt survivors 

and others directly impacted by suicide such as siblings, parents, children, and spouses. Rowe 

says it was remarkable to witness the field start to recognize the value of experts with direct 

experience. Among those coming forward were Dr. Quincy Lezine and Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, 

who asked Rowe if she’d be willing to record a video as an ally, not realizing that she was an

attempt survivor. After Rowe shared her story with Dr. Spencer-Thomas, the psychologist asked 

her to record a video about her experience. She did. “As mental health professionals, we work 

against stigma, calling suicide prevention a public health issue, but then we often hide that part 

of ourselvesfor fear of rejection within that same community.” Still, Rowe sayssharing isn’t right 

for everyone, and those thinking of doing so should carefully examine what they are seeking. “I

never tell my story hoping to get validation from the audience. This is who I am, and my 

perspective is one of the toolsI bring to the table.” Rowe has continued to work in mental health 

as the suicide prevention program manager for Oklahoma’s Department of Mental Health and

Substance Abuse Services. She says sharing her story with those working in mental health is 

destigmatizing, making it easierfor othersto do the same. “They see me sharing my story in front 

of 100 to 500 of their colleagues and think, ‘No one isjudging her. Maybe I can do it too.’”

Rowe says the mental health community needs to work together to alter the perception of 

mental illness not only in the general population but also within the very community designed to 

treat it. “For many of us, we are facing similar struggles to the people we work with every day

but hiding in the shadows regarding our own experiences for fear of stigma. That needs to 

change.”

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Interview 4 Ron Bruno 

CIT International 2nd Vice-President Ron Bruno Says Mental Health Care Shouldn’t Come in 

a Law Enforcement Car 

There are police departments throughout the United States that no longer answer calls they 

believe could result in “suicide by cop.” Around 100 shootings like this happen each year, making 

up roughly 10% of fatal police shootings. Ron Bruno, executive director of CIT Utah and 2nd vice 

president at CIT International, says this is a philosophy taking hold in law enforcement agencies 

all over the country, but he quickly points out, people can’t just be left in distress. “Something

has to be done, and that’s why we need to examine our crisis response system as a whole, carving

out clear roles for law enforcement and mental health services.” Bruno says that law

enforcement has a critical part to play in the mental health crisis response system, but it needs 

to be in a position of support to the mental healthcare system and only when necessary. “We 

have to challenge the belief that mental health crisis services must come in a police car." 

While there are law enforcement agencies selectively unresponsive to some mental health calls, 

others are doubling down on their involvement. The impetus, says Bruno, is that, historically, 

mental health services haven’t been appropriately funded and so law enforcement became the

de facto mental health crisis response system. “It fell to us, but we aren’t the best solution or

help to a person in an escalated state.” Bruno travels around the world, speaking to audiences 

on de-escalation and advocating for clearly defined roles for criminal justice and behavioral 

health services to create a more effective crisis response system. At some point during a 

presentation, he often asks the audience to raise their hand if they’ve ever been pulled over by

a police officer. Most of the hands raise. Then, he’ll instruct them to keep their hands up if the

experience increased their anxiety level. Hands remain raised. “Every time a police officer goes 

out to a crisis situation, it’s going to escalate the person’s emotional state. Yes, we can and will

train officers to de-escalate situations, but often, their mere presence is stressful, and the person 

in crisis can become fearful and enter flight or fight. That’s when we see major problems.”

Estimates suggest that 25-50% of fatal encounters with law enforcement involve a person 

experiencing mental illness. Bruno says that in most cases, the interaction between law 

enforcement and the person in crisis is unnecessary. Just like audiences raised their hands to 

indicate the distress they felt when pulled over by a police officer, in de-escalation training, 

officers share that, in the majority of cases where they were called out, the situation didn’t

warrant it. Bruno says having law enforcement be the go-to for mental health crisis care appears 

and feels criminalizing to the person in need. “Most departments have a policy that the person

in crisis will be handcuffed, placed in the back of a caged police vehicle, and taken to an ER. This 

is traumatizing for the person and will make it so that they are reluctant to call for help the next 

time they are in crisis.” The result is that people in distress, and their families, allow further

decompensation than they should before reaching out for help because they don’t want to

interact with law enforcement. “With officers declining calls and people not wanting to interface

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with law enforcement when they or a family member is in crisis, it highlights that something is 

wrong with the current system.”

The solution, says Bruno, isn’t complicated. When a call goes into the Emergency Communication 

Center—911 dispatch—operators can be trained to triage those calls and identify whether the 

person in crisis is a danger to her or himself or an immediate threat to someone else. If not, then 

the person can be passed along to appropriate care in the mental health crisis system through a 

warm handoff to the crisis line. At that point, says Bruno, the crisis line can also do a secondary 

triage and determine whether it’sstill a safe situation. If they decide that it’s unsafe, Bruno says

they can do a warm handoff back to law enforcement, and law enforcement can send out Crisis 

Intervention Team (CIT) trained officers to go out and respond to those situations. “Most calls

that go through 911 don’t require a law enforcement response and can be transferred to a crisis 

line where we know the majority of calls, 80% and upward, are resolved at that level, and there’s

no need for police involvement.”

If an officer on the street comes across a person in crisis and assesses that the person is safe, she 

or he should reach out to mobile crisis. The challenge is that each community is unique, and many 

don’t have a robust continuum of crisis care. Bruno says that’s why each community needs to

take a hard (and holistic) look at what’s happening in their public mental health system, 

addressing potential funding and geographical challenges. Ironically, says Bruno, many 

communities are defaulting to the least economical solution, using law enforcement as the 

primary form of mental health crisis services or embedded co-responder models, where law 

enforcement agencies dedicate personnel and team them with clinicians to respond. “It’s

expensive because now you have dedicated law enforcement officers waiting around for mental 

health crisis calls or, like some agencies, a clinician rides around with a police officer who is 

handling unrelated calls.”

Bruno saysit’stime for public mental health to return to the community and allow people in crisis

to be treated within it, instead of removing them from their support systems by taking them out 

of their day-to-day lives and roles. “It’s easier for people to transition back into their lives if

they’re never fully yanked out of them in the first place and can be treated in the community.”

He says by retraining people to call a crisis line instead of 911, it allows people to be treated in 

the least intrusive manner as opposed to the highest. “We’ve trained people to think that if a

loved one is in crisis; they need to contact law enforcement who will come out and take the 

person into protective custody. He or she will be handcuffed, put in the back of the police car, 

and taken to the ER. That’s what we’ve told people is the cost of stabilization.” He says it’s a

grueling, stress-inducing process, that more often than not, was unnecessary. A crisis line can 

help decrease a person’s distress, and if they are unable to, they can send out a clinician and

certified peer specialist to talk to the person, and, when necessary, the support of a CIT trained 

police officer. The idea, says Bruno, is to maximize the use of a person’s natural supports into

theirstabilization plan. “By doing this, we are going to retrain community membersto think, ‘If I 

become symptomatic, I contact the crisis line. If the specialist deems it appropriate, they will 

hand me off to a warmline. However, if necessary, they can also send out a professional who can 

talk to me.” 

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Figure 6 – Law Enforcement/Crisis Triage Tree 

Bruno saysit’stime for a change, “Let’streat crisis in the most compassionate and least intrusive 

manner.”

Want to see a flowchart that gives a clear example of risk assessment? Take a look at the recently 

released Broome County 911 call diversion emotionally distressed caller risk assessment in the CIT 

best practices guide. 

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Interview 5 John Draper, PhD 

Dr. Draper of the Lifeline Believes a Three-digit-number for Mental Health and Suicide Crisis 

will One Day be as Ubiquitous as 911 

The murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York, in 1964 sparked outrage and was one of the 

driving forces behind the 911 emergency callsystem people know and depend on today. It wasn’t 

the murder itself that left people incensed but that 38 people witnessed Winston Moseley kill 

Genovese and did nothing about it. The behavioral reaction was later called The Bystander Effect 

or Kitty Genovese Syndrome. It turns out that at least one man did call the police to report that 

Genovese was seriously injured. His call went unanswered. 

Most people can’t remember a time before a centralized number for people to call in an

emergency; when people dialed 0 for an operator or directly called the nearest police or fire 

station. John Draper, Ph.D., project director of the SAMHSA-funded National Suicide Prevention 

Lifeline (800-237-TALK or chat), hopes that a three-digit-number for mental health and suicide 

crisis will one day be equally ubiquitous. “Right now people have to remember an 800-number, 

and even though calls go up 15-percent per year and 2.2 million calls were answered in 2018, we 

know that 13-million people seriously think about suicide each year, which means we are far from 

the universe of people who could be reached.”

In December, former Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) wrote a letter to Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary 

of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging the agency to use the three-digitnumber 611 for Lifeline. The senator wrote that the designation would connect Americans 

experiencing mental health crises with life-saving counsel and resources. Currently, 611 links 

callers to telephone repair and telecom customer service. In 1997, the FCC noted it would 

continue to do so until needed for another national purpose. Sen. Hatch wrote that making the 

Lifeline more accessible and user-friendly to Americans is “a pressing, national purpose,” and

recommended that 611 be used solely for mental health and suicide crises to eliminate confusion 

and delay. He further stated that it would be more difficult to market 611 as Lifeline if the number 

has a dual purpose, which would limit its efficacy. 

Dr. Drapersays studiesshow it’s easier to remember three-digits than an entire phone number, 

making a three-digit-number for mental health and suicide crisis more accessible. The 

designation would build off the national network infrastructure provided by the Lifeline, and 

trained mental health and suicide prevention counselors would answer calls. Much like 911 and 

Poison Control centers, the number would triage to local services and resources, including mobile 

crisis and respite services. It also, says Dr. Draper, has the potential to decrease stigma. While 

pondering the long-lasting effects of a three-digit-number for mental health and suicide crisis, 

Dr. Draper asked his daughter, who has a history of anxiety and depression, what she thought 

the impact could be. “She responded that people would finally understand mental health crises

are real and require a different response than triaging to police or EMS. She said that by creating 

a cultural shift, ‘It would likely do more than anything else to erase stigma against mental illness, 

and that’s cool.’”

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A three-digit-number, says Dr. Draper, will likely increase the number of callers to the Lifeline 

and, as a result, has the power to change how people think about mental illness. More callers 

equate to more data the national hotline can collect and analyze. He saysthisis precisely what’s

happening in the United Kingdom with 111, a three-digit designation for all urgent health needs, 

including behavioral, that provides advice and triages callers to the appropriate level of care. The 

number of calls to 111 grew from 12 million to 16 million, with an increase in demand over time. 

Today, roughly 20,000 people call 111 every day to get advice over the phone from doctors, 

nurses, and paramedics. Dr. Draper says a similar three-digit-number for mental health and 

suicide crisis would trigger real parity. “People phoning would give us the data we need in terms 

of caller expectations from the mental health system, which will increase voice representation 

and help tailor demands on policymakers to respond to these needs with adequate behavioral 

health resources in the communities callerslive.”

What Dr. Draper and his partners want is to create a culture that fosters autonomy where 

people’s ability to get help during a mental health or suicide crisis is at their fingertips, quite 

literally. It’s up to the caller, not his or her provider. “This gives people a sense of agency at a

time when they are feeling incredibly helpless, which is powerful.” He also believes that when

society places mental health and suicide crisis on the same level as medical crisis, there will be a 

repositioning, making call centers a visible service similar to EMS. Graduating students will find it 

a real pathway for learning how to help others. “A cultural shift through a three-digit-number is 

good for callers and the mental health profession.”

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Interview 6 Nick Margiotta, Retired Detective 

Law Enforcement Are Critical Stakeholders in Behavioral Health Crisis Services 

It was September 24th, 1987, and Memphis police answered a 911 call made by a mother 

desperate to help her 27-year-old son experiencing an episode of Paranoid Schizophrenia. Joseph 

DeWayne Robinson had cut himself 120 times with a butcher’s knife, and his mother wasfearful

that he was going to kill himself. When police arrived at the scene at LeMoyne Gardens public 

housing project, it was a tight perimeter, and the officers asked Robinson to drop the knife. He 

didn’t. What happened next is disputed: the officers said Robinson lunged toward them;

witnesses said he did not. The officers shot and killed Robinson, prompting community outrage 

and charges of racial bias against the Memphis administration. Robinson was Black, and the two 

officers who shot him were White. Sabrina Taylor, Crisis Intervention Team Training Coordinator 

at the Phoenix Police Department, says this tragedy was the tipping point that led to the creation 

of the Memphis Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). 

Robinson was what law enforcement calls a frequent flier: he had a history of psychiatric 

hospitalizations and was a high use 911 caller, but the police officers who answered the 

emergency call were not trained in behavioral health crisis or how to deescalate the situation. 

Taylor says that people in crisis may not be easy to engage and appear out-of-control. Law 

enforcement can interpret the behavior as an imminent threat. Officers trained in crisis 

intervention have additional tools to respond to behavioral health emergencies such as 

knowledge, understanding, empathy, and listening techniques that may calm people down and 

negate the need for force. The approach decreases conflict and diverts people from jail. Instead, 

says Taylor, police officers often take people experiencing behavioral health crises to psychiatric 

emergency centers. 

Nick Margiotta, president of Crisis System Solutions and retired Phoenix police officer, says CIT 

sounds simple, and in many ways, it is, but it takes leaders in behavioral health who understand 

that police officers are critical stakeholders in crisis services. “Historically, the expectation has

been that law enforcement officers fall in line with whatever policy leaders in behavioral health 

make. That doesn’t factor in our culture and, as a result, officers won’t do it.” Margiotta wasfirst 

introduced to CIT in 2001 in a training program. He says that trainings are essential, but without 

an infrastructure to support actual implementation, it’s a disservice. In training, Margiotta

learned about mobile crisis teams and psychiatric centers, where he and his colleagues could do 

a warm handoff. “The training shifted my perception and made me realize we can’t arrest our 

way out of this problem, and I was excited to start applying CIT to my job.” Margiotta answered

a call from a frequent caller with Serious Mental Illness (SMI). She was depressed, had been 

drinking, and threatened to take 100 Advils. Margiotta thought this was an ideal opportunity to 

do his first psychiatric center drop-off. When he went to the facility, the staff rejected the dropoff because the woman had been drinking. Then he took her to the detox facility, and they 

rejected her because she was suicidal. “I was proud to apply my CIT training only for the person

to be denied in both locations, so I didn’t do again for years. All I could do was take her to the

parking lot of the county hospital and say, ‘Good luck.’”

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Even though Margiotta didn’t use the CIT training as initially designed, it made him rethink how 

law enforcement was engaging with the community. Over the next few years, he built a diversion 

program and housing first initiatives during the day while patrolling downtown Phoenix at night. 

Three years later, Margiotta worked to restart CIT, and this time it was successful. The reason, 

says Margiotta, is he spent 90% of his time working with the behavioral health system, educating 

leaders on police culture. “Law enforcement will default to the more convenient solution, which 

means drop-offs need to be easier than what it takesto book someone.”

Police Drop-offs 

The more limitations and challenges behavioral health facilities present, the less likely they will 

get police to drop off people in behavioral health crises. What law enforcement needs, says 

Margiotta, is a no-refusal policy, allowing officers to do drop-offs and return to their patrol duties. 

He says that initially, when he restarted CIT at his station, law enforcement faced numerous 

roadblocks. It took patience, collaboration, and walking crisis services staff and leadership 

through why service design must include a law enforcement voice to facilitate change. Margiotta 

says psychiatric centers were requiring police officers to take off their guns, refusing patients 

who had been drinking, requiring officers to obtain medical clearance, and the only door for dropoffs sometimes was the front door, with the seclusion and restraint room far away from the dropoff door. These were all barriers that, if they continued, would have made drop-offs unlikely. He 

says facilities also feared police officers were going to bring people experiencing delirium. If a 

person was clearly in need of a hospital, that’s where Margiotta would take him, but in cases of 

delirium, which is harder for a law enforcement official to determine, the center could call for an 

ambulance. “If I’m going to get medically screened out and have to put the person back in my car

and drive him somewhere else, why should I even bother going there in the first place? 

Psychiatric centers need to function like Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) 

applies to them, accepting anyone police officers bring in and integrating cop culture into the 

development of their policies. Meaning, 100 percent of crisis workers must be trained to work 

with law enforcement effectively. Otherwise, officers will default to the hospital or jail.”

Margiotta says successful collaboration also required law enforcement buy-in, which any refused 

drop-off could derail. “Yearslater, we’ve had a tremendous cultural shift here in Phoenix. Police

officers automatically believe drop-offs allow them to do their job better and help people.” He

says increasing buy-in from law enforcement and crisis services required holding each other 

accountable. Side-by-side, they looked over data each month. The goal, says Margiotta, was for 

police drop-offs to take less than seven-to-eight minutes. “When that didn’t happen, we all took

a closer look at what went wrong and how to improve performance.”

A threat to collaboration is inviting law enforcement officers to be part of the design and 

processes, but then not integrating any of their recommendations. Margiotta says this is what 

happened with one facility. “They brought me in, and we worked alongside one another for 

months, but during the grand opening, it was clear they didn’t follow any of our

recommendations. They were pretending to collaborate. I was there as window dressing to show 

that leadership had worked with us, and to keep me quiet during the implementation phase.” He

saysthe facility was unsafe for police:staff would need to buzz officersin and couldn’t let anyone

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in or out. “It was a lockbox with nearby instruments that were dangerous. I made it clear there 

was no way officers would be coming there until they made the necessary changes.” In the end, 

the facility did an entire redesign. It took three years before police regularly started bringing 

drop-offs there. 

Mobile Crisis 

Margiotta says mobile crisis teams are a vital partnership for law enforcement, but working with 

them required similar collaborations. It took at least three years to create a robust, productive 

relationship. At first, they struggled with inconsistent mobile unit dispatch and crisis service 

provider fear of escalation. A good crisis mobile response team has rapid response and goes out 

24/7, but, initially, that wasn’t happening. “We were getting a 25% denial rate from mobile units.

That’s a no-no in our culture; officers will stop calling. We worked together and eventually, every 

time we called, a mobile unit was dispatched immediately. That’s the compliance we needed.”

Police also need to be able to do a warm handoff of 5-15 minutes to the mobile unit and quickly 

get back to their jobs, but crisis services personnel often wanted officers to stick around for fear 

that the person might escalate. “This makes sense only if the person is violent, and suicidal

ideation alone doesn’t mean police need to be present.” In one instance, says Margiotta, a 

caseworker was answering a call where the person hadn’t taken her medication for a few weeks. 

The caseworker sent the mobile crisis team and simultaneously called police to go to the location. 

“There was no danger, she wasn’t violent, and when I said that to the two-person mobile unit, 

they responded, ‘She has Schizophrenia. She could be hearing voices.’ They are the onestrained

in behavioral health. I didn’t need to be there.”

Today, a person in a leadership role has to authorize if a mobile unit can call law enforcement, 

but if a situation escalates, the unit can immediately call the police. As a result, calls for police to 

respond have gone down between 70% and 80%. If the crisis line gets 18,000 calls a month, 

Margiotta says less than 10% will triage to mobile crisis units, and less than 1% need police 

response. Part of the struggle, says Margiotta is viewpoint, “Behavioral health workers believe

these issues to be in the community, and that they are helping us. We view it quite differently; 

we are bringing them their customers for who they receive state and federal dollars. We see 

ourselves as critical stakeholders.” He has spent most of his career developing and maintaining

partnerships between law enforcement and crisis services. “You can’t keep people out of the 

Emergency Department and jail without these relationships. It’s a public safety and public health

issue: we are in thistogether.”

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Interview 7 Anonymous Peer Recovery Coach 

Peer Recovery Coach Says “Stigma of MAT Persists in the Recovery Community” 

Veronica* slid into addiction slowly, increasingly drinking as a teen, and by the time college came 

around, she needed alcohol first thing in the morning to stop her hands from shaking. She says it 

escalated from there. For Veronica, addiction wasn’t a straight line, more like there were times

she stopped entirely and others when there was a litany of drugs she used each day, including 

heroin and oxycodone. She quit multiple times, promising her family she was done, but it wasn’t

until a close friend died in front of her, his arm hanging limply off the EMS gurney, that Veronica 

made a promise to herself for herself that she was going to get help. She turned a corner that 

day, driving to a nearby clinic where she started Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and that, 

she says, “was all she wrote.” It’s not though, because six yearslater, Veronica is now an awardwinning peer recovery coach, helping people navigate the challenges she faced. When asked 

what or who she credits for her recovery, Veronica doesn’t hesitate to say ongoing MAT and

caring recovery coaches, but, she lowers her voice, her colleagues don’t know. She fears they

wouldn’t accept her and she has good reason to think so. “There’s a lot of stigma within the 

recovery world and a belief that MAT issimply substituting one drug for another.” Veronica says

in a recent discussion, a colleague said just that. “It’s startling because no one would say that

about a person with a physical illness. Can you imagine if those in the medical field said to people 

with diabetes, ‘You shouldn’t use insulin astreatment.’ Well, that’s what’s happening in the field

of recovery: people are often judged for using evidence-based medicine.” 

The belief that MAT is exchanging one drug for another is not uncommon among the general 

population and even among physicians in the medical field. In May 2017, Dr. Tom Price, former 

Secretary of Health and Human Services, said, “If we’re just substituting one opioid for another, 

we’re not moving the dial much.” He faced immediate backlash from the medical and scientific 

community. Dr. Vivek Murthy, former Surgeon General of the United States, responded on 

Twitter that an abstinence-only approach isn’t backed by science, unlike MAT, which leads to

better outcomes compared to behavioral treatment alone. Months later, in September, there 

appeared to be a shift in the federal government, with Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the FDA Commissioner 

at the time, saying that MAT “...is one of the major pillars of the federal response to the opioid 

epidemic in this country. He went on to say that MAT is an essential tool that has the potential 

to allow millions of Americans to regain control of their lives. 

What’s surprising to Veronica isn’t that people in the general population don’t understand that 

MAT is an evidence-based practice but that those working in recovery are perpetuating 

misinformation. Medication-assisted treatment is a holistic approach for substance use disorders 

that combines counseling, behavioral therapy, and FDA-approved medication. She says that 

without MAT, she would likely be dead. “I would have continued using, or relapsed, unsure of

what I was taking and the dosage. Heroin is no longer pure. It’s increasingly packed with other

ingredients, many of them potentially lethal, like Fentanyl.” Veronica says that without

treatment, she wouldn’t have been able to enter recovery because the pain associated with

withdrawal is horrendous. It’s not just acute pain that’s problematic, but also precipitated

withdrawal that happens months later, making each day unbearable. “People in recovery who

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haven’t had an opiate addiction often don’t understand what thistype of withdrawal feelslike in

the short- and long-term. I think that’s why they aren’t sympathetic.”

Last year, Veronica’s 29-year-old half-sister died of endocarditis from intravenous drug use. 

Having shared similar struggles, Veronica believes she and her sister ended up on divergent paths 

because of money and stigma. “My sister went to the nearest clinic for two years, and she did 

well, but then she could no longer pay the $80 a week it costs to go to the clinic.” Her sister’s

family refused to help with the fees because they thought taking Methadone would limit her job 

opportunities. “Because ofstigma and fear ofstigma, my sister is now in a mausoleum.”

Not sharing her treatment with colleagues has been taxing, and Veronica has struggled with 

whethershe’s contributing to stigma by not telling herstory. “I wonder about it every day. Am I

living a lie? I don’t think they would accept me. From what I’ve heard them say, my guess is it

would diminish their respect for me. If I make a human error, will they blame the fact that I’m on

treatment, even if that doesn’t make sense?” Every week, Veronica goesinto the clinic with her 

take-home bottles. The clinic fills them with medication for the next six days; on the seventh day, 

she goes back in to get her final dosage. She says it didn’t start off that way. At first, she had to

go to the clinic daily, then, over time, the recovery team would give her medication to take home. 

After six years, she still goes to the clinic once a week. It makes Veronica nervous because there 

are weeks where it has been challenging to get to the clinic. For instance, last year, a massive 

storm was headed to her area. She lives out in the country, and snow would have made it 

impossible to get to the clinic. Veronica arranged to stay with family in town so that she wouldn’t

risk missing the final dosage or filling her bottlesfor the next week. It’s these small changes that 

colleagues can notice, she says, and it makes her worried that they will figure it out; for example, 

wondering why she stayed with family instead of at home. The fact that she has to worry about 

it at all makes her angry. “I work in a recovery environment, but, ironically, I’m forced to hide my

recovery and treatment from my colleagues. Stigma inside of an industry designed to help people 

recover and fight stigma is problematic.”

Veronica worries about how stigma affects others in recovery and how judgment toward those 

in recovery impacts people not quite there yet. At a recent team meeting, a colleague vented 

that Narcan—a medication that entirely or partially reverses an opioid overdose, including 

respiratory depression—enables people addicted to opioids, saying, “We’ll bring them back, and

they will just use again.” “It made me so upset to hear someone in this role make a statement 

like that. We hope to keep people alive. We have many repeat clients, which is why the person 

was frustrated, but we want to be there for them when they take that long-lasting step into 

recovery. It took me multiple times to get there. What if people at the clinic had just given up on 

me? Where would I be? We want to do our best to create an environment for people to get the 

help they need when they need it.” 

*Veronica is not the peer recovery coach’s real name. She has asked to remain anonymous.

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The above interviews were published in NASMHPD’s #CrisisTalk in 2019, and are re-printed here 

by permission. 

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Contributors 

Contributors to the Toolkit 

The following people contributed their expertise and time to the development of this toolkit: 

Project Writing and Editing Team 

 Consultants: Michael Hogan, David Morrisette, Debra Pinals 

 National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD): Stuart Gordon, 

Brian Hepburn 

 National Research Institute (NRI): Ted Lutterman 

 RI International: Charles Browning, David Covington, Paul Galdys, Stephanie Hepburn, Wayne 

Lindstrom, Amy Pugsley, Jamie Sellar 

 SAMHSA: Elinore McCance-Katz 

Expert Workgroup Members through Participation in the 2nd Crisis Now Global Summit 

 Amy Watson  Janet Peters  Robert Brutinel  Angela Kimball  Jerry Reed  Ron Bruno 

 Becky Stoll  John Draper  Sabrina Taylor  Brett Emmerson  Justin Chase  Samantha Allen 

 Briana Duffy  Karen Newbigging  Shelley Curran  Caroline Dollery  Kathryn Turner  Siti Hazrah 

 Christopher Ogg  Kim Myers  Steve Miccio  Claire Iveson  Leah Dunbar  Steven Dettwyler 

 Colleen Carr  Leon Boyko  Sue Murray  Danna Mauch  Lindsay Branine  Sue Ann Atkerson  David Byers  Margarita Chavez-Sanchez  Teri Brister 

 Debbie Atkins  Margie Balfour  Thom Craig  Donna Robinson  Martin Connor  Tom Betlach 

 Edgar Wiggins  Matthew Goldman  Tom von Hemert  Elnathan Prinsen  Matthew Taylor  Tomotaka Uraguchi 

 Emma Tiffin  Mike Buenger  Travis Atkinson 

 Helen McGowan  Misha Kessler  Wendy Farmer  Hiroshi Otsuka  Norman Lamb  Yukihisa Namiki  Ivan Frkovic  Phil Moore  Zhang Jie 

 Jamie Sellar