Update: Crisis services provide support for members with urgent behavioral health concerns

Since we last wrote about our crisis services, a new facility joined our program: Pine Rest, located in Grand Rapids. The following provides additional details about all the facilities and other pertinent information.

As you read in this newsletter previously, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network recently launched new mobile crisis and crisis stabilization services to help members experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis get prompt and appropriate behavioral health treatment. The program is for our commercial members who are under age 65.

Care options include:

• Psychiatric urgent care
• Mobile crisis assessment
• Crisis stabilization
• Residential crisis treatment

These services are designed to ensure that members get the right care at the right time, in the right place. It can help them avoid emergency room visits for mental health concerns and substance use disorder, as well as unnecessary hospitalizations.

About these services

Psychiatric urgent care: Emergency and urgent walk-in and virtual service to address immediate assessment and treatment needs for patients who can’t wait for routine outpatient treatment and care

Mobile crisis assessment: Emergency mobile mental health assessment
and intervention for adults and children in immediate crisis. A mobile unit can be deployed to home, office or emergency department.

Crisis stabilization: 24/7 recovery-oriented crisis center that offers emergency assessment, intervention and stabilization for urgent and emergent situations.

Residential crisis treatment: Designed for short-term residential crisis treatment for adults ready to participate in recovery.

Participating facilities

The following facilities currently participate in the program, and may offer some or all  these services:

Common Ground Resources and Crisis Center
1200 N. Telegraph Road, Building 32E
Pontiac, MI 48341
Phone: 1-800-231-1127
Counties covered: Genesee, Oakland and Wayne
Available care options:

• Psychiatric urgent care (virtual visits only)
• Mobile crisis
• Crisis stabilization (on-site)
• Crisis residential (on-site)

Hegira Health’s COPE (Community Outreach for Psychiatric Emergencies)
33505 Schoolcraft Road
Livonia, MI 48150
Phone: 734-721-0200
Counties covered: Wayne
Available care options:

• Psychiatric urgent care (on-site)
• Mobile crisis
• Crisis stabilization (on-site)
• Crisis residential (on-site)

Pine Rest
300 68th St. SE, Building E, Entrance E1
Grand Rapids, MI 49548
Phone: 616-455-9200
Counties covered: Kent and Ottawa
Available care options:

• Psychiatric urgent care (on-site only)

Additional facilities will be added to the program in the near future.

How to access these services

Blue Cross or BCN members, health care providers and other individuals can contact these facilities by phone. They also accept walk-ins. Members who need help getting started can call the Mental Health and Substance Abuse number on the back of their member ID card.

“The beauty of these services is they can meet the member where they are and be accessed any way you need to access them,” said Dr. William Beecroft, medical director of behavioral health for Blue Cross.

Additional value

Here are some additional benefits of mobile crisis and crisis stabilization services — all designed to provide a better member experience:

• A speedy, specialty-focused and confidential assessment of their immediate behavioral health (mental health and substance use disorder) needs
• A multidisciplinary evaluation, including the services of a psychiatrist, which leads to a plan of care and placement in the appropriate level of care
• A positive, less stigmatizing experience than with some other systems of care.
• Rapid access to behavioral interventions, including medication, nursing care, psychotherapy and psychoeducation
• Alleviation of a sense of crisis, encouraging feelings of hope

“These services help ensure our members get treated at the right place at the right time and that they’re linked to the appropriate level of care and available community resources,” Beecroft said. “However, as part of the evaluation and treatment process, some members may still require psychiatric hospitalization as part of their treatment plan.”