Expanding the continuum of care is an important part of breaking down barriers and accessibility to mental health services.
One way the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center is enhancing accessibility to services is through its new Acute Care Team.
The team can receive referrals from everywhere within the agency regarding clients of any age who are high risk. Members of the Acute Care Team are focused on providing services for those individuals who have crisis needs.
“Say, a clinician is meeting with someone who is in a crisis, but they don’t have any space in their schedule to meet with that person more frequently, they can refer that person to the Acute Care Team and a member of the team can meet with that person immediately and more frequently,” said Dr. Kirsten Watkins, Bert Nash Center clinical director.
The need for the Acute Care Team was identified after the Treatment & Recovery Center (TRC) of Douglas County was up and running and the need for next-step, follow-up outpatient care was identified.
“Our crisis services were excellent in terms of being able to meet with someone in a crisis immediately, either at the TRC or with our Mobile Response Team (MRT),” Watkins said. “But sometimes the follow-up service-providers were struggling to meet with folks in a timely manner after they left the TRC or MRT because our outpatient therapists are scheduled weeks out.”
So, an acute care therapist was hired to handle the demand. Then their schedule became full, so another acute therapist was hired, then another one, then another one was added to Child and Family Services.
Thus, the Acute Care Team was established.
“An acute care therapist is meeting with someone who is in a crisis episode, providing short-term services immediately in order to help that person stabilize,” Watkins said. “Once they are stabilized, then we connect them with our other outpatient services.”
Lauren Alexander is the manager of the seven-member Acute Care Team. The team works with both adults and children.
Once the Youth Recovery Center (YRC), slated to open in 2027, begins operations, the Acute Care Team will work with the YRC in the same way it does with the TRC. Serving as that warm handoff between initial crisis care and established therapy. The YRC will serve youth ages 6-17.
“The YRC will be very similar to our relationship with the TRC,” Watkins said. “The Acute Care Team will be the next step to help youth engage with services after that initial visit. It used to be someone would have to wait for a clinician to have an opening in their schedule. The Acute Care Team provides that interim support for people who are in crisis.”
Alexander gave the example of a message she received from a clinician at the TRC about a person who had self-identified as being in crisis and having high needs. That was at 1:45 in the afternoon and by 2:30 that person had an appointment with an acute care therapist.
The Acute Care Team provides an important piece in the continuum of care, so that people can move up and down the continuum, depending on their needs, and the Center has the resources to respond quickly.
Alexander said the Acute Care Team is receiving 10 to 15 referrals a week for someone needing acute care. Anybody who gets referred is seen by a license therapist immediately, matching them with an outpatient provider. In the meantime, the acute therapist can meet with the client in the short term to help stabilize crisis symptoms.
“This is a really great alternative for someone who is needing a higher level of care,” Watkins said. “This is the next step we didn’t have before. We are more capable now to respond to whatever need there might be.”