Call Center Services

Beginning Monday June 20, 2022 Geode Health will partner with Protocall Services Inc. to provide after-hours phone coverage for all Geode sites.   

ProtoCall currently contracts with over 450 customers for call center services. They answer 40,000 calls per month across their different markets of Community Mental Health Centers, Managed Behavioral Health Organizations, College and University Counseling Centers, and Employee Assistance Programs.

ProtoCall’s Clinical Specialists and Crisis and Access Specialists provide immediate telephonic support and crisis stabilization to callers and assist third-party callers who are concerned about another. This team of mental health professionals conducts a clinical assessment on each clinical call, which includes assessing for harm to self and/or others, substance use, interpersonal relationship violence, and the use of psychotropic medications. Based upon the assessment, a Level of Care (LOC) determination is made as either routine, urgent, or emergent. The LOC dictates the utilization of specific interventions, such as de-escalation, coping strategies, and safety/contingency/self-care planning; the necessity for escalation, including directing a caller to a hospital or mobilizing emergency services; and the appropriate follow up or next step options.

o    Safety Assessment Items:

1. Presenting concern
2. Suicidal ideation
   
3. Homicidal or harm to other ideation
   
4. Intentional self-harm
5. Substance use
6. Interpersonal or domestic violence
7. Abuse to vulnerable populations
8. Psychiatric medication
   
9. Cognitive concerns

1. Routine Criteria: Call is resolved with de-escalation if necessary and referral to local resources is provided. Caller initiates next steps.
   
1. Low risk of harm (suicide and homicide
   
2. Low risk of substance use
   
3. Minimal-to-mild impairment in functional status
2. Urgent Criteria: Call requires de-escalation and referral to local resources. Possible referral to sobering/detox unit, outreach to DCR team.
   
1. Moderate-to-serious risk of harm (suicide or homicide
   
2. Moderate-to-serious risk related to substance use
   
3. Moderate-to-serious impairment in functional status
   
3. Emergent Criteria: Call requires immediate emergency attention
   
1. Extreme-to-serious risk of harm (suicide or homicide)
   
2. Extreme-to-serious risk related to substance use
   
3. Extreme-to-serious impairment in functional status
   

Their Clinical Specialists and Crisis and Access Specialists use a Brief, Solution-Focused approach to provide in-the-moment support to the caller, helping them find resiliency and hope, while building trust and confidence about the ongoing relationship with our services. ProtoCall also strongly adheres to least restrictive interventions and utilizes a person-centered approach. Only as a last resort will they intervene in a manner that may be contrary to the caller’s stated wishes.

ProtoCall’s clinical approach and philosophy are informed by SAMSHA’s Practice Guidelines: Core Elements in Responding to Mental Health Crises (2014); SAMSHA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach (2014) and their most recent research-based publication, National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care-Best Practice Toolkit (2020). A key to their provision of quality services is the consistent application of their clinical model, which is regularly informed through their relationship with their accrediting organizations: the American Association of Suicidology (AAS), the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL), as well as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMSHA’s) best-practice guidelines.

Documentation for completed calls is made available to Geode Health Support Center staff by the next business day via their online, HIPAA-compliant Customer Portal.

The documentation will be downloaded each day by the Geode Support Center.  The Support Center will document all relevant information and send an Athena case to the patient’s clinician detailing the patient’s request.  For those callers that are not existing patients, the Support Center will attempt to reach the caller and obtain additional information, providing it to the respective Geode office as needed. 

Providers and clinicians should access the after-hours messages entered by the Support Center through their Athena inbox (see picture below):