[loceng]

I've thought for awhile the solution to a better funnel for mental health is to allow multiple organizations to be the ones answering the phone, and implementing their own protocol - process for hiring or accepting volunteers, the training they receive, the script they follow - if any, and then free or for-pay offerings or programs they may know of and feel that person may be a good candidate for. Basically A/B testing and then at least you have a variety of data to analyze to see what the outcomes are.

I think what's mostly lacking though is an intermediate in-person program that's pre-psychiatric ward, an intensive-supportive environment, where the go-to isn't medications - probably where medications aren't prescribed - but basically in-person to determine a person's full state, and see what amount of short-term and/or long-term care they need to feel stable enough, if not good, on their own again. This requires money of course, and the sooner we can get people into these programs then the less dis-ease progression occurs, and arguably people will be easier to help.

Does anyone know of any such program or protocol, where care/treatment cascades and/or escalates and/or continues in-person in wide variety of breadth and depth depending on each person? I feel the current go-to with medications is generally that the medications are a hammer, so everything looks like a nail, but if multi-disciplinary teams (not just a psychiatrist trained in medication) rallied around a person and they had a whole toolkit worth of options then outcomes would be magnitudes better - and without causing additional harm.