Comprehensive Crisis Response
ODMHSAS is building a comprehensive crisis response system to help individuals experiencing crisis by providing immediate services to anyone that needs them.
By addressing mental health crisis at multiple points of the severity spectrum, ODMHSAS is striving to help Oklahomans before they need higher level services and establish better outcomes for anyone in the mental health and substance abuse system.
988 Mental Health Lifeline
If you are in crisis, call or text 988 to get connected with a trained professional.
Why Comprehensive Crisis Response?
Calling 988
In July 2022, ODMHSAS partnered with Solari Crisis & Human Services to launch the 988 Mental Health Lifeline. In tandum with the FCC/SAMHSA national 988 implementation, 988 replaced the existing Suicide Prevention Lifeline to better serve Oklahomans experiencing all forms of mental health crisis. Calling 988 in Oklahoma will connect you with a mental health professional that can help connect you to local available resources. These operators can also connect you to mobile crisis teams for people needing immediate care. You can learn more about Oklahoma's Mental Health Lifeline at 988oklahoma.com or see Oklahoma's monthly call center statistics.
What Are Mobile Crisis Teams?
On average, around 90% of calls to the 988 Mental Health Lifeline are resolved over the phone. Oklahomans that need more help after their initial call may be connected with a Mobile Crisis Team in their area.
ODMHSAS has partnered with organizations statewide for Mobile Crisis Team support to respond locally within their communities to deescalate crisis situations. A Mobile Crisis Team includes a licensed clinician and certified peer recovery support specialist or case manager. These teams utilize best practices in behavioral health, including suicide prevention and intervention.
Follow Up & Referral
988 has a relationship with Community Mental Health Centers and Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics across the state, allowing 988 operators to transfer you to a mental health provider to schedule an appointment at any time during a call. Many times, you can be seen the same or next day. You might see a provider to begin therapy, start a medication, or in a small number of cases, receive inpatient treatment.
988 crisis specialists also offer follow-up services, free of charge. You can agree to a follow-up after your initial conversation, and a crisis specialist will call you within 24-48 hours to see how you’re doing and offer any additional support.
Integrated Technology
Tablets continue to be dispersed among first responders, consumers, and staff across Oklahoma. On any given month, over 317 hours are provided via these integrated devices.
ODMHSAS has partnered with HunterCare to provide telehealth capabilities for first responders to better assist Oklahomans in crisis as quickly as possible.
Transportation
Should transportation to a higher level of care be needed, a third party contractor can provide transportation to the nearest Urgent Recovery or Crisis Center. ODMHSAS contracts with vendors statewide to help transport consumers as quickly as possible. Local law enforcement also help with severe crisis transports when applicable.
Urgent Recovery Clinics & Crisis Stabilization Units
Urgent Recovery Clinics (URC) and Crisis Stabilization Units (CSU) are places of stabilization that offer the community a no wrong door access to mental health and substance use care. These facilities operate similar to a hospital emergency department that accepts all walk-ins, ambulance, fire and police drop-offs. This level of care is not a hospital, but an intervention in-between to keep individuals in the least restrictive environment as possible. Facilities that utilize both URCs and CSUs are known as Community-Based Structured Crisis Centers.
These facilities provide assessment and support, and are staffed 24/7/365 with a multidisciplinary team. This team includes but is not limited to psychiatrists, nurses, licensed behavioral health practitioners and peers with lived experience similar to the population served.
Crisis Continuum Outcomes
Since its launch in July 2022, Oklahoma 988 Mental Health Lifeline and Crisis Continuum has seen tremendous outcomes when serving Oklahomans across the state.
In its first year, Oklahoma's 988 call center:
- Answered more than 40,000 calls and responded to over 15,000 texts/chats.
- Had an average answer speed of 11 seconds.
- A 99.8% in-state answer rate
- A 92% stabilization rate.
- Dispatched more than 1,000 mobile crisis response teams.
Oklahoma's Comprehensive Crisis Response system expands beyond the national 988 lifeline with systems specifically designed to work within the state's mental health infrastructure. As of January 2023, ODMHSAS has implemented the following to better serve Oklahomans:
- Integrated technology by providing over 24,000 enabled devices across the state and include client, practitioner and first responder devices. These services have accounted for over 506,519 total calls (approx. 95,000 inbound crisis calls) with an average call duration of 27 minutes.
- Implemented a statewide alternative transportation service to law enforcement when Oklahomans experience a psychiatric crisis called RideCARE. RideCARE has conducted over 13,000 transportations since its creation in November 2021. That is more than 1.5 million miles in one year!
- Added many new Urgent Recovery Clinics and/or Crisis Stabilization Units statewide (including both adult and adolescent models). ODMHSAS plans to have either an Urgent Recovery Clinic, Crisis Stabilization Unit, or 24/7 outpatient services provided in all counties with a population of 20,000 or more.
