Video summary
Mountain Comprehensive Care has recently received a federal zero suicide grant, which will be utilized to significantly expand their existing suicide prevention initiatives and deepen their reach within the local community. The organization plans to leverage these funds to enhance their commitment to providing comprehensive care that includes prevention, intervention, treatment, and follow-up services for those in need. This funding underscores a broader mission to ensure that help is accessible to everyone, regardless of gender, race, or economic status, as suicide affects individuals across all demographics without bias.
A key component of this expanded effort involves strengthening partnerships with schools and other community entities to provide free crisis services whenever necessary. The organization operates a mobile crisis team that responds to calls from anyone in the community, whether it is a school dealing with a student tragedy, a business supporting an employee who has lost someone, or a family seeking immediate assistance. These teams not only offer direct support but also focus on educating staff members through specialized trainings on how to respond empathetically and effectively when they encounter individuals grieving a loss or struggling with suicidal ideation within their daily environments.
Beyond mobile responses, the grant aims to integrate suicide prevention awareness into all aspects of the clinic's operations, including physical health services. The organization recognizes that individuals seeking help for physical ailments may simultaneously be in a mental health crisis, potentially feeling like they want to end their lives at that very moment. Consequently, a major goal is to train every single staff member, from support personnel to clinicians and therapists, on how to identify signs of distress, de-escalate potential crises, and provide immediate stabilization until professional clinical help can arrive.
Ultimately, the initiative seeks to create a unified safety net where every employee understands their critical role in the treatment and support of individuals facing mental health challenges. By ensuring that even non-clinical staff are equipped with the knowledge to refer patients to appropriate resources and handle emergency situations safely, Mountain Comprehensive Care aims to foster a culture of awareness and readiness throughout the entire facility. This holistic approach ensures that no one is left without support, whether they walk through the door seeking physical care or are in immediate danger, reinforcing the message that suicide prevention is a shared responsibility for the entire team.
Read the full video transcript
Mountain Comprehensive Care has been
awarded the federal zero suicide grant.
They plan to continue to improve their
commitment to their suicide prevention,
intervention, treatment, and follow-up
care. Here we have director of crisis
services Janet Allen to tell us more.
>> As far as like with the schools, yeah,
we work with the schools. They allow us
to come in when they do have a suicide.
We provide free services to uh schools,
to families, children. Nothing is built
for, nothing is turned in. We provide
crisis services. We have a mobile crisis
team that goes out and provides a
community response. We do it within the
community, we could do it at the school,
whoever calls us, no matter who it is.
For example, if um someone within
community, maybe a business lost uh
someone there and they feel like that we
need to provide services, they call us,
we go and provide services to the
individuals of that business, their
family members, and the community free
of charge. That's part of this is to
educate those staff that are going to be
going out. They'll be going to trainings
to learn how to respond to a mother who
just lost her child in suicide to a
teacher who lost a child uh within that
classroom or those students that have
lost uh you know their friend. So it's
been able to provide those services
there
that that suicide is real and like I had
said earlier that it uh affects everyone
whether gender it doesn't matter it's
not bias of gender race economic status
adult and even children that it can
affect everyone
>> with a wide variety of programs that
they offer. Mountain comprehensive care
has plans to use this grant to better
expand upon their suicide prevention
programs and to have a better reach into
the community. all are encouraged to
reach out in the situation in which they
require help.
>> In every program, just because we might
have the mental health, we have mental
health clinic, but we have the physical
health clinic. There are individuals
that come in there that need services as
well. Uh we don't know that this
individual may walk in and may be having
a crisis at that moment and maybe
feeling like they want to end their life
and that person that is working with
them needs to be trained on how to deal
with that situation and how to respond
to that client and how to get the
appropriate care and help for this
client. And that's what we're going to
be utilizing this for. Our goal is
actually just to train uh all of our
staff to deal with a crisis situation
because at any time someone can walk
into the building and be in a crisis
situation and they have to assist that
person. They may not be providing the
actual clinical treatment, but you might
be trying to attempt to deescalate an
individual from, you know, taking their
own life in front of you until someone
else could get there to assist and to
help you. all of our staff, it doesn't
matter what role they play because all
of us play a role in the treatment of
these individuals. Even from the support
staff that are welcome to come into the
door right up to our our clinicians and
our therapist to our psychiatrist, even
when they go to the physical health part
uh over to those services at our home
place clinic. You know, those
individuals also need to be aware and
trained on how to deal with someone that
comes in in crisis and where to refer
them to and and appropriate places for
help. Reporting for Mountaintop News,
I'm Connor Kidd.