Emergency Mental Health: Assessment and Treatment

CPD

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Faculty

Tim Webb, MA, ED, LPC Related seminars and products

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Tim Webb, M.A.Ed., LPC is the founder and CEO of The FOCUS Group, PLLC, a Clemmons, North Carolina based clinical training and consultation agency specializing in developing comprehensive programs for mental health crisis management. FOCUS Group helps systems ensure clinician safety; improve treatment of trauma and sexual aggression, performance enhancement and manage facility growth. His professional experiences include intake director and managing crisis services in the community, clinics and emergency rooms. As a clinical director, he has been responsible for program development, hiring/supervising clinicians and direct care staff, and all clinical operations for residential facilities. His unique combination of clinical and management experiences allow him to understand both the needs of administrative and front-line staff as he speaks to professionals in various settings.

In addition to holding Masters in Counseling from Wake Forest, Mr. Webb is a 2nd degree black belt in Mu Duk Kwan and an instructor in that martial art. He has provided clinical services in a number of jail settings and also has a background in firefighting. Mr. Webb’s unique combination of martial arts, teaching, emergency services and clinical experience have allowed him to develop the Stay Safe system of managing physically aggressive clients in a non-violent but safe and effective system.

 

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial:  Tim Webb is the Founder/CEO and author for The FOCUS Group, PLLC. He has an employment relationship with Daymark Recovery Services.  He receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. Tim has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial:  Tim Webb has no relevant non-financial relationship to disclose.
 

Additional Info

Program Information

Objectives

1. Describe clinical strategies to assess and triage mental health emergencies
2. Assess and intervene with suicidal, psychotic, and dangerous patients and clients in any setting
3. Assess and intervene with clinical strategies when presented with patients and clients experiencing symptoms of substance withdrawal
4. Understand when and how to involuntarily commit patients and clients
5. Articulated ethical, legal, and liability issues, including duty to warn and your responsibilities as a clinician regarding EMTALA
6. Discuss which instruments to use to assess for suicide, violence, sexual aggression, and substance withdrawal and how this informs the clincian's choice of treatment intervention
7. Determine when to hospitalize patients and clients, and how to justify the appropriate level of care to insurers
8. Develop effective safety plans and crisis interventions for suicidal and psychotic patients and clients
9. Assess withdrawing patients, including use of the CAGE and CIWA in clinical treatment
10. Recognize which psychotropic medications are often associated with which psychiatric diagnoses
11. Examine legal and ethical implications of emergency mental health assessment and treatment

Outline

SUICIDE RISK ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION

• Identify those patients most at risk
• Unique differences in adolescent and geriatric suicides
• Two questions the patient must answer
• The two types of suicidal patients
• Interview strategies and techniques
• Which instruments to use for assessment
• Develop clinically sound safety plans
• When and how to manage the patient as an outpatient
• When to hospitalize the patient
• When and how to involuntarily commit the patient
• The role of managed care and third party payers

HOMICIDE AND VIOLENCE RISK ASSSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION

• Keeping yourself and others safe with the violent patient
• Identify those patients most at risk
• Differences in interviewing the violent and suicidal patient
• Interview strategies and techniques for the violent patient
• The two types of violence
• Which instruments to use for assessment
• Unique risk factors for school violence
• Assessing the risk for workplace violence
• When to hospitalize the patient
• When and how to involuntarily commit the patient
• The role of managed care and third party payers

MENTAL STATUS EXAMINATIONS

• Elements of a mental status examination
• Understand and identify psychotic symptoms
• The role of medical conditions and substance use in the examination and disposition
• Backtracking a diagnosis based on the patient’s medication list
• Which medications are used for specific disorders
• The role of “medical clearance,” laboratory studies, and medical conditions affecting disposition
• Managing malingerers

HOW TO ASSESS THE CHEMICALLY DEPENDENT PATIENT

• Which substances require detoxification
• Medical vs. traditional vs. social vs. outpatient detox
• Using the CAGE to assess for alcoholism
• Using the CIWA to assess alcohol withdrawal
• Medications and vitamins vital to safe detoxification
• Assessing the withdrawing patient
• Making a level of care recommendation for the substance-abusing patient
• Integrate laboratory studies and medical histories into the assessment
• The role of managed care and third party payers

APPRECIATE THE ETHICAL, LEGAL AND LIABILITY

IMPLICATIONS OF MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCIES

• Ethical responsibilities
• Appreciate the results of the Tarasoff court case, especially the duty to warn and protect
• Understand when and how EMTALA applies
• Learn whether to “contract for safety”
• Understand reporting abuse and neglect

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Nurses
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Case Managers
• Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors
• Nurse Practitioners
• Physicians
• Physician Assistants
• School Nurses

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