Crisis response services save lives: Learn about services that can get your employees assistance with behavioral or mental health issues.

AuthorRogers, Melinda
PositionTIMEOUT FOR HEALTH

The mother on the other end of the phone line didn't know I where to turn. Days earlier, her daughter's 13 year old friend had committed suicide, leaving parents in a suburban Salt Lake County community at a loss for how to help grieving teenagers cope with the unexpected and devastating loss.

Tipped off to the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute's (UNI) CrisisLine, a 24 hour, 7 days a week phone crisis service staffed by licensed mental health professionals, the mother decided to call for help after seeing a news story about suicide prevention. She picked up the phone and spoke to a counselor, who discussed various program options available to her and arranged for UNI's Mobile Outreach Team (MCOT) to come to speak with the concerned parents and teens.

The situation is one of many that unfold daily for the university's set of crisis programs, which provide crisis intervention services for Salt Lake County residents experiencing an emotional or psychiatric crisis. The programs include the CrisisLine, WarmLine, MCOT, Receiving Center and Wellness Recovery Center.

The UNI crisis programs were created in 2011 as a partnership with OptumHealth and Salt Lake County and have been recognized in Washington, D.C. and locally as one of the most comprehensive and successful crisis response systems in the country.

The CrisisLine answers about 4,000 calls a month, said Mary Talboys, a licensed clinical social worker and director of crisis services for the University Neuropsychiatric Institute. MCOT teams respond to about 250 outreach cases each month.

"Going to the site of the crisis whether it be a...

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