Mozzaz Expands Digital Suicide Prevention Program in Tennessee During the Pandemic Crisis
Mozzaz expands their digital Suicide Prevention program in Tennessee in partnership with Centerstone under a new grant awarded by SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The grant was awarded to Centerstone Tennessee for the Tennessee Lives Count-Connect2 (TLC-Connect2) program. Centerstone’s TLC-Connect2 program is a 5-year statewide early intervention program designed to reduce suicides and suicide attempts for youth and young adults aged 10-24 year-old.
Since the pandemic, crisis support lines have seen a surge in call activity. Former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy joined Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s morning briefing on the Metro’s response to COVID-19 stating that “calls to suicide hotlines are up more than 800%.”
“The tragedy of COVID is it exacerbates this already prevalent mental health and addiction crisis. No one doubts that mental health and addiction is real,” said Kennedy. “Every single American has been faced with a mental health issue in this COVID crisis, themselves, not just a family member, but themselves.”
Centerstone will provide 30-day enhanced follow-up care to youth and young adults who have been treated in an emergency setting or inpatient psychiatric hospital following a serious suicide threat or attempt. They will expand the Mozzaz Digital Suicide Prevention solution into the TLC-Connect2 program to enhance the level of outreach and increase levels of virtual support.
Becky Stoll, Vice President of crisis and disaster management for Centerstone, shared some interesting virtual support statistics in a recent interview with the Washington Post, “No-show appointments are down even among the hardest to reach. Centerstone clients who have been identified as at risk for suicide are even more engaged in therapy since the virus shut the clinics down. For these clients, kept appointments were up an astonishing 12 percent.”
The Mozzaz solution includes secure messaging, telehealth, self-assessment tools, mental health resources and real time care team alerts that will help individuals engage with suicide-specific interventions and on-call support teams to help them reduce suicidal thoughts and risk.
