Program Spotlight: Mobile Crisis Team
Photo via Artur Marciniec Photos from Canva. To honor the privacy and dignity of those we serve, FrontLine Service does not share client photos or identifying details.
The great moments happen when a caller agrees to receiving some form of help.
– Sabrina Kohls, Crisis Intervention Specialist
Allison was concerned when she saw her brother, Brandon, start making risky decisions and claim to have stopped taking his medication; he seemed to be hypervigilant and getting paranoid. She’d seen this happen before, and she remembered where it was usually headed – either with Brandon in the hospital or jail, or cycling for months through unmanaged symptoms struggling to get back to baseline. He’d attempted to take his own life before, and she was getting scared. In any event, these patterns almost always led to long-lasting consequences for Brandon. She decided to reach out to FrontLine Service’s Mobile Crisis Team to request someone call and check in on him.
FrontLine’s Mobile Crisis Team is available 24/7 to chat, text, or call, for anyone experiencing crisis in Cuyahoga County. For the clinically trained team of intake specialists, there’s rarely a quiet moment with over 55,000 calls answered in 2023 alone. Team members review assigned scheduled assessments and proceed from there. Some days, though they’re uncommon, there are no scheduled assessments and Team members go directly to answering calls. The work often calls them out into the community, conducting wellness checks and assessments at homes, in hospitals, or wherever the need takes them.
Not everyone who calls in to Mobile Crisis is having feelings of self-harm or suicidality. Some people just call to touch base once-in-a-while. They may lack insurance or be very isolated and just need someone to check in with. Some, like Allison, call out of concern for a loved one. Others are in acute crisis or battling chronic, prolonged, and severe mental health symptoms. If an assessment is necessary, one can be provided for them either that day or scheduled for later. Sabrina Kohls, who has extensive experience as a member of the Mobile Crisis team, says that the fast pace and high emotional demand of the work can be stressful at times, and it can be disheartening to know that there are limitations over what the team can do, but the great moments happen when a caller agrees to receiving some form of help. She notes that one of the most impactful components of the work is the follow-up call. The Mobile Crisis Team follows up, with the consent of the caller, on every call within a day or two. This follow-up to check in can provide crucial intervention at an extraordinarily vulnerable time.
After hanging up with Allison, a Crisis Intervention Specialist from the Mobile Crisis team reached out to Brandon who agreed to talk. After taking some initial information, the Crisis Intervention Specialist listens to Brandon talk through some of the heavier feelings he’d been experiencing lately. He’d fallen off sobriety and had stopped taking his medications. At first he’d been feeling great, but now he was starting to feel scared that he was losing control of things and not able to find his way back. The Intervention Specialist helped Brandon identify some options and formulate a plan for getting back into treatment and back on track. Before getting off the phone, Brandon gave his consent for a follow-up call and felt a bit calmer knowing he had a strategy in place.
For more information about the Adult Mobile Crisis program, click the button below: