2.14 Evaluation of a New Protocol for on-Call Therapists Designed to Help Families and Adolescents Enrolled in a Community Outpatient Psychiatry Program to Use De-Escalation Strategies

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Telephone crisis call lines that evaluate the need to go to an emergency department (ED) have been shown to decrease ED visits. It is unknown whether the rate of ED visits can be decreased further if an on-call therapist coaches the caller on the use of coping skills. We hypothesize that, when therapists are trained to stress coping skills during crisis calls, there will be a decrease in the number of crisis calls that would normally end in an ED visit. This decrease will be associated with an increase in coaching behaviors and more individualized coaching strategies.