Henderson mobile team targets behavioral health crises
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Lisa Kelso, a licensed therapist who put together and leads the city of Henderson’s Mobile Crisis Intervention Team. The MCIT was formed to address some of the behavioral health challenges that Nevada’s second-largest city faces.
Our interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Sheldon Jacobs: How did the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team develop?
Lisa Kelso: Nevada ranks high for suicides, individuals with mental health concerns who are not receiving treatment and individuals with substance-use struggles, including opioids. We continue to have high fentanyl-related overdose deaths, and now we also see increases in nonfatal overdoses.
In 2021, Assistant City Manager Lisa Corrado, and Neighborhood Services manager Hayley Jarolimek saw a need for behavioral health resources in the community. They applied for and received two grants to develop the MCIT.
Who makes up the team and what do they do?
Our MCIT has worked to align itself with best-practice guidelines for behavioral health, either substance use or mental health, and crisis care. We are focused on responding, treating and supporting residents impacted by mental health and substance-use challenges with an emphasis on providing crisis intervention, psycho-education and connection to community resources.
We support both the individual in crisis and their friends, family and loved ones.
We have a team that includes five licensed mental health clinicians, two navigators and two certified peer recovery support specialists.
Our clinicians perform a screening to understand a person’s mental health status, substance-use concerns, evaluate crisis needs and conduct on-site trauma de-escalation strategies to facilitate access to appropriate stabilization services in ways to divert from the emergency department. They can develop safety plans and work to stabilize individuals and link individuals to treatment.
Our navigators perform case management activities, including developing a personalized care plan and initiating coordination of care.
Who can be referred to your program and how do individuals access your services?
Adults who have experienced a behavioral health crisis or a family member or support person are all appropriate for our program. We can follow up with individuals, or friends and support people, who have experienced a psychiatric hold at a hospital, an overdose or those who have lost someone to suicide.
However, we are an internal referral service, meaning we do not have a front-facing office or phone number for clients to access us directly. Instead, community agencies would send us the referral.
What is the mission and vision for the team?
Our mission is to provide behavioral health services to those in crisis through intervention and connection to community resources, and our vision is that the people in the city of Henderson receive high-quality, timely services to prevent and address crises while ensuring safety, dignity and well-being.
Nevada is working toward building a crisis care response system, which includes having someone come to you when you are in crisis. We hope to be recognized as a designated mobile crisis team by the state and be able to be dispatched by the 988 system.
Jails and prisons house a significant number of individuals with mental illness, and they are often incarcerated twice as long as those without mental illness. To address this, mobile crisis teams are being used nationally, resulting in diversion from the criminal justice system, in addition to reduced referrals to emergency departments and subsequent hospitalizations.
Our hope is that our mobile crisis intervention team will have the opportunity to intervene early and divert individuals into appropriate levels of care.
If you’re thinking about suicide, or are worried about a friend or loved one, help is available 24/7 by calling or texting the Lifeline network at 988. Live chat is available at 988lifeline.org.
Sheldon Jacobs, Psy.D., LMFT, is a licensed mental health professional based in Las Vegas. Contact him at drjacobs10@hotmail.com. Follow @drjacobs33 on X and Instagram.
