Jayne Wildasin, Manager of Crisis Intervention, York and Adams Counties
Quick Overview:
Crisis Intervention is the backbone to many services at TrueNorth Wellness Services, supporting all of the programs by providing follow up care to all the clients we serve. Crisis can be a standalone service, in that many people just need the opportunity to share their story and pain without ever needing other services, or it can serve as a stepping stone to higher levels of care.
Recent Accomplishments:
TrueNorth Crisis Intervention is one of 122 accredited crisis centers across the country, and maintains an American Association of Suicidology (AAS) accreditation through 2022. We continue to be a part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) - one of about 150 call centers across the country. Additionally, we have two individuals trained as Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) instructors, which is an evidence-based model of suicide intervention. We continue to provide mobile crisis services across Adams, York and Fulton counties and have created a crisis help desk to allow all employees to request crisis to provide follow up calls on an as needed basis.
Current Challenges:
We have continued to see an increase in call volume and face to face intervention numbers while having no increase in staffing numbers. Mobile crisis interactions take longer, due to drive times andneeding to respond to calls in teams.
What we’re working on:
The TrueNorth Crisis team recently developed our own set of guiding principles.
- Crisis Workers act as advocates to provide our clients with safe treatment
- We provide services in the least restrictive environment
- We believe when a child, regardless of age, is in crisis that the entire family is in crisis
- We focus on providing community based crisis intervention
- We use collaborative decision making
The crisis supervisory team is working on revising the training program for new employees.
Upcoming Goals:
There is a need to develop the ability to provide follow up calls via text or email. In the culture today, many individuals do not feel comfortable talking on the phone, but are willing to text or chat. Some individuals do not have minutes on cell phones but are able to text. As technology advances we need to be able to advance as well.