Quicker Dispatch, Better Care
Tierra is no stranger to the benefits a rapid response mobile crisis team can deliver. Over the years, she has worked with these teams several times when she experienced a crisis event. They showed up with compassion and knowledge, getting her to an urgent care facility for immediate help or sharing about local resources. However, there were gaps in her care, and she sometimes didn’t have a consistent support team in place. One mobile crisis responder eventually introduced her to Trillium Health Resources and enrollment in our Tailored Plan. Before Trillium, she felt her behavioral and physical health were unstable, without a clear diagnosis or path forward. It was also hard at times pay for her medications. Once she started working with her Tailored Care Manager, she got a dedicated primary care physician, the right diagnosis, and a stable path forward.
Tierra has a job and is working towards a degree in education. In her own words, she is “thriving now and can accomplish [her] goals.” She has started enjoying her favorite hobbies again, like poetry and roller blading. Her care team, her own initiative, and Trillium have helped her reach this point. Tierra’s story exemplifies all the reasons why mobile crisis services exist. But it also shows why a comprehensive crisis system can help better support even more positive outcomes like Tierra’s.
Mobile crisis services should have a low barrier to access, provide data for future improvements, and be able to track follow up care received. The new Mobile Crisis (or MC) Dispatch Pilot will help shorten the response time and improve reporting drastically. Funded by $1.5 million from NCDHHS, the program will allow for mobile crisis teams to be dispatched immediately, if needed, when someone calls the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Trillium partnered with Integrated Family Services and Easterseals PORT Health, two experienced providers who have long served the ten counties where the pilot will operate. They will track response times, travel distances, resolution outcomes, and follow-up actions. While some of those metrics were tracked individually for members like Tierra in the past, this pilot will provide a holistic overview for all who engage in the mobile crisis system. This data will then identify further mobile crisis enhancements and strengthen collaborations across the various channels involved in the ecosystem. What may have taken someone speaking to four different representatives could soon have the ability to reduce just one.