Looking Glass Crisis Response Team members Ben Braney, Beto Montes and Cait McCabe working the CRT phone lines and helping youth and families in crisis.
For many families in our community, there is a need for help and care when a child is experiencing a mental or behavior health crisis. To support those families, Looking Glass, The Child Center, and Jasper Mountain came together to create the Crisis Response Team. When an individual calls the team, they are connected with a qualified mental health professional who helps to de-escalate and respond to the crisis over the phone. When a situation calls for an in-person response, a team of two goes out to the child’s or youth’s location.
Unfortunately, in-person services had to be temporarily suspended in April due to concerns around COVID-19. The team began offering only telehealth support in place of in-person support. This decision was made out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety of children, youth, and staff. We are happy to announce, however, that with careful planning, we were able to resume in-person services on July 6th. We implemented a protocol of teams using personal protective equipment (gloves, masks, hand sanitizer) for go-outs. We also place an emphasis on working with families outside rather than going into homes.
Beto looks through the CRT binder, which contains helpful forms, resources and materials for various situations the team may encounter.
“Families have come to rely on CRT’s in-person interventions and it’s important we safely resume these services to the community especially during these stressful times,” said Looking Glass mental health therapist Lynn Booth.
During these trying times, the calls that we have been receiving appear to be of higher acuity with longer than average de-escalation times on the phone. That is why it was so important for us to be able to return to providing our in-person services. So far, in the month of July, Looking Glass teams have been called out to three in person go-outs which have gone smoothly. Parents are telling us that they appreciate having “a person to talk to and a voice of reason.” We are also evaluating ways to bring back crisis respite beds and hope to do so as soon as it is safely possible.
Looking Glass, The Child Center, and Jasper Mountain are meeting regularly to make decisions about safety and protocol during the pandemic. We are committed to serving Lane County families as safely as possible and will be continually evaluating the situation. For now, we are glad that we were able to return to in-person go-outs, a service that Lane County families have relied on for the past 15 years.
If you or a loved one is in need of help from the Crisis Response Team call 1-888-989-9990.