San Francisco, California was the location for the 42^nd annual conference of the American Association of Suicidology.  With an attendance of over 350 people, the conference offered significant information on the science of prevention, treatment and recovery from suicide. 

A special Crisis Centers conference stream allowed crisis and distress centres from throughout the continent the opportunity to network and learn from each other.  Several of the session providers have agreed to provide web-cast presentations to DCO membership so that a broader group within Ontario can benefit from their experiences.

Crisis Centre follow-up with Suicidal Persons

Follow-up after suicide attempts or other acute suicidal episodes is emerging as a crucial but under utilized suicide prevention strategy.  Research has demonstrated that there is significant risk for reoccurrence of suicidal thoughts and behaviour in the weeks and months following an Inpatient discharge, an Emergency department discharge or following calls made by suicidal callers to suicide prevention hotlines.

Distress (and crisis) lines can play an important role through follow-up and help meet this critical and important, yet often unmet, need.  Many crisis centres in the USA who receive national mental health funding are receiving special suicide prevention follow-up grants to support their follow-up programs.  Working groups are examining best-practices for following at risk callers.

Model for Collaboration - Crisis Centres and other Community Crisis and Emergency Services

Inter-agency collaborations are the norm in many jurisdictions.   Formalizing those collaborations beyond the local level is an initiative pursued by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  Specifically the establishment of a standard operating procedure that could enhance communications between local crisis lines and 911 call centres and even emergency departments nation-wide. 

In northern California, a pilot program was developed to enhance the collaborations amongst local service providers.  Individuals that are discharged from a local inpatient facility following admission for suicidal ideation/behaviours are provided with follow up support calls from the local crisis line for one month post discharge.  Initial findings speak to the success of such a venture when looking at the safety of the individual, but also address the challenges faced by smaller community agencies in engaging larger institutional partners.

Customer Service Orientation - Developing and Evaluating a Standard of Excellence in a suicide hotline

A west-coast suicide hotline has worked on improving program services through an emphasis on developing a customer service orientation and a silent monitoring program.  They initially developed goals, tools and introduced key customer service concepts to staff and volunteers. Then they implemented and measured the changes to their service delivery model.  The results were qualitative improvement to their program services and customer service ratings. 

The concept of Customer Service as it applies to mental health crisis/suicide hotlines is often a controversial one.  Many myths and prejudices exist that require a dedicated process to dispel, and it is very important to instil and maintain a strong customer service orientation culture among staff and volunteers if such a program is to succeed.

The program leaders of this initiative will be sharing their service improvement journey with the DCO membership via a future web-cast.  They will be addressing their theoretical framework, how they developed their organizational strategy, the measurement tools used during implementation and for program evaluation.  They will also describe how they designed a silent monitoring evaluation process (based on AAS Quality Assurance best-practice tools) that is a qualitative, standardized measuring and evaluation to that helps ensure quality client contacts.

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