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Crisis calls are one of many community benefits that happen behind the scenesSome of the community benefits that occur through the New Ulm Medical Center are activities that most people don’t know about until they have need of them – and then it may be an emergency. Mental health crisis calls is a prime example of this. Mental Health Manager Steve Schneider said the inpatient mental health unit typically gets a crisis call about once every two or three days. “These are generally people who already have a connection to us,” Schneider explained. “Usually, they are people who have been a patient on our unit. When they leave, we give them information on what resources are available to them in their geographic areas – if they live in this area, one of those resources is a direct phone number to our inpatient mental health unit.” Often, a crisis call is a person who has a chronic mental health condition and can benefit from ongoing support, Schneider said. “If there is any indication the person is in immediate danger of hurting themselves they are directed to get to the emergency room.” However, most of the time the person on the other end of the phone just needs someone to talk them through a tough time. “Most of these calls end up not coming in. Most are just having a bad day, they’ve had a conflict or they need to blow off some steam, or they may just be lonely and need to talk to someone. Most of the calls come in at night,” Schneider said. “If we think they could benefit from additional resources, they are directed to those. Often, they may have a county case worker assigned to them and they are directed to follow up with that person the next day to help them sort out their issues.” It is the job of the nurses to ascertain the immediate needs of the caller, Schneider said. “So, it is definitely within the purview of the skills and experience of our staff in their daily work, but there’s no way to bill for these calls so it is considered a community benefit.” Along the same lines, is the consultation that the mental health registered nurses provide to the emergency room on a regular basis to determine whether or not a patient needs to be admitted to the psychiatric unit. However, these are not a community benefit because they are billed as part of the emergency room visit. If a person is experiencing a mental health crisis, Schneider said, they should call the NUMC main line at 507-233-1000 which will then direct patients to the ER staff; or just go directly to the nearest emergency room. |
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New Ulm Medical Center
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