*All videos are Closed Captioned on Youtube*
Through The Harris Center’s partnership with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a Lifeline call in the area we cover was answered by our Crisis Line. The caller was inebriated and sitting on the railroad tracks with the intent to die.
After talking with the caller for a while about his concerns, he decided he didn’t want to die. But at this point, he realized his boot was stuck in the railroad tracks and he could not get out.
We worked with our team to call 911 who were then able to connect with the railroad service to halt all trains in the area until the caller was safely removed from harm by police officers who arrived on scene. The officers escorted the caller home.
The Crisis Line team followed up with the caller multiple times and were able to connect him to SpindleTop Center for ongoing care. The caller called us back the next day to thank the team for talking with him and let us know that doesn’t plan on every doing anything like that again."
-Bailey and Kandace, Crisis Line Team Members
What makes a good listener? Common responses to this question include someone who is attentive, engaged, non-judgmental, helpful, knowledgeable and empathetic.
The Harris Center Psychiatric Emergency Service (PES) located at the NeuroPsychiatric Center (NPC) is one of the major public mental health emergency programs in Harris County. Started in 1999, services are available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week to anyone in Harris County experiencing some type of mental health crisis.
All of us need support from time to time. Whether we need to have a good cry or a good laugh, knowing we have someone to turn to in a time of crisis is a comfort many of us take for granted. For individuals living with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), finding that help is not always easy. The same is true for those who serve as caregivers for loved ones with IDD. At The Harris Center, the IDD Intensive Needs Program is available to help provide the support and compassion that many need.
While the IDD Intensive Needs Program provides community-based supports throughout Harris County, it also has a component that focuses on providing crisis care. Implemented in 2016 as an initiative of the State of Texas and led by Clinical Team Leader Amanda Willis, LCSW-S, the three person staff is composed of master level clinicians who provide assessments, support and linkage to on-going community-based services for individuals with IDD who find themselves in a crisis.
The Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD recently hosted an Open House and inauguration for its new PostHospitalization Crisis Residential Unit (PHCRU). Funded by the Texas 1115 Healthcare Transformation Waiver, this one-of-a-kind, cost-effective program will focus on furthering each individual’s work toward stabilization and reducing costly emergency room visits, incarceration and rapid hospital readmissions in the future.
"I received a call from a woman who was depressed and felt like no one appreciated her. She stated that her sons always responded when she requested assistance, but they never just called to check on her and say 'hello.'
"I have been working at the Hospital to Home program at Open Door Mission. One day I was walking around in the court yard, and a resident approached me. He had been at our Southmore program a couple of times, and he remembered me.
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The Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD strives to provide high quality, efficient, and cost effective services so that persons with mental disabilities may live with dignity as fully functioning, participating, and contributing members of our community, regardless of their ability to pay based on a sliding scale rate schedule. Privacy Statement Contact Us