Clinical Services Treatment Services Crisis Intervention
Crisis Intervention & Hospitalization
Crisis Intervention and Hospitalization Referrals
Local (818) 881-5198
Toll Free (888) 425-5227
Crisis Hotline: (800) 784-2433
Allcare continues to deliver the best crisis management psychiatric emergency care possible throughout Los Angeles County on a 24 hour/7 days a week basis. AllCare's crisis service helps to resolve acute problems through mobile psychiatric emergency teams (PET) that evaluate, refer, and follow-up on individuals needing assistance. Sometimes, evaluations lead to referrals for hospitalization and AllCare works to promote voluntary admissions in all cases.
In a city with limited psychiatric inpatient beds, AllCare succeeds in client placement by searching hospitals and facilities for open beds when other attempts have failed. In addition, AllCare searches for other types of emergency services such as fast medication evaluations and immediate psychotherapy. Client safety and client agreements are two important pillars in service delivery.
Following a crisis evaluation, AllCare works with clients to link them with local clinical services in order to maintain a continuity of care. AllCare also attempts to provide clients with referrals for social support in the community including professional and consumer led support groups, housing, food, medical care, and other basic necessities.
Crisis Intervention Debriefing Team For Adults
Critical incidents can impact many people and situations and can occur at any time or place. For this reason, there is a trained Crisis Intervention Debriefing Team that is available within twenty-four hours to respond to a critical incident. A critical incident is described as any situation faced by a person that causes them to experience emotional reactions which have the potential to interfere with their ability to function at the moment (acute stress) or at a later time (delayed stress reaction).
Examples of such incidents that have the capacity to generate unusually strong feelings are:
- The suicide of a classmate
- Serious injury or death of a co-worker
- The death of children under tragic circumstances
- Catastrophic events/ Natural Disasters
- Any case that attracts unusual media attention
There are essentially four types of Critical Incident Stress Debriefings (CISD). Each has its own purposes and procedures, but the overall goals are basically the same: to protect and support personnel and to minimize the development of abnormal stress response syndromes which may cause lost time and effectiveness at work and problems within the family.
- The On-Scene or Near-Scene Debriefing: This is the briefest form of CISD. It is typically performed by a mental health professional familiar with emergency operations.
- The Initial Defusing: The initial defusing is a form of CISD, which is usually performed very shortly (within a few hours) after the critical incident. It may be led by a mental health professional, but it is more often organized and led by command officers. At times, there is no designated leader. The whole initial defusing may be quite spontaneous as those who had been involved in the critical incident.
- The Formal CISD: The formal CISD is typically led by a qualified mental health practitioner 24 to 48 hours after the conclusion of the incident.
- The Follow-up CISD: The follow-up CISD is performed several weeks or months after a critical incident. It is not always necessary, but when it is, its main purpose is to resolve some issue or problem that came up as a result of the critical incident and is still present. The follow-up CISD may be performed with the entire group, a portion of it, or with an individual.
Crisis Management: What to do next time?
Chances are, if you are reading this now, that you may have do deal with an unfortunate crisis recently. Maybe it involved your workplace or your family. But in any case, perhaps you were overwhelmed by the urgency of the situation and did not know where to turn. It's important to not beat ourselves up about this as responding to crises is a difficult task for anyone, even trained professionals. In fact, you may be a professional that has witnessed a traumatic event for which you were lending a hand. Again, this is not a sign of weakness, but perhaps, your humanity. If you can remember something next time, it is this: get support and help from someone as soon as possible. If you are in a state of shock, it may difficult to think logically and it always helps to have someone provide a second opinion or alternate way of addressing the crisis. Please give us a call and we will try to walk you through the steps you can take to care for someone in need, and to care for yourself.
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