FCS receives $50,000 grant for COPES 911

COPES 911, a program of Family & Children’s Services (FCS) has received a $50,000 grant from Telligen Community Initiative (TCI), a private, Iowa-based charitable foundation. This grant was one of only 15 grants selected for TCI’s 2021 Iowa and Oklahoma-based funding cycle, which awarded a total of $676,430 in grants to nonprofit organizations in these states ($392,319 to Oklahoma and $284,111 to Iowa).

COPES is Family & Children’s Services 24/7 telephone hotline and emergency mobile crisis response. Callers receive assessment, crisis intervention, mobile response if needed, referrals to community resources and follow-up from a mental health professional. The COPES 911 partnership places a certified mental health crisis expert in Tulsa’s 911 Dispatch Center (Tulsa 911) five days a week. This allows dispatchers to quickly connect callers in psychiatric distress to crisis therapists.

911 centers across the country are traditionally structured with first responders from each main discipline housed in one, large room. The calls are answered by 911 operators who transfer callers to the appropriate first responders located on-site: fire department takes fire calls, police department takes law enforcement calls, and the ambulance service takes medical emergencies. COPES 911 provides care for 911 psychiatric crisis callers who, in lieu of speaking with a dispatcher only, can be directly connected to a mental health crisis professional whose goal is to either stabilize the crisis over the telephone or, if necessary, send the COPES mobile crisis team and/or first responder to the site.

For more urgent situations requiring an on-site crisis response, FCS’ COPES mobile crisis team, the CRT (Community Response Team), and/or other first responders may be dispatched to the site. Additional value-added, enhanced services are offered by COPES 911 to the distressed caller by providing a professional mental health intervention to the immediate crisis and then reaching back out to the caller to ensure they become knowledgeable about community services they can turn to for help in the future. This includes:

• Connecting the 911 caller to ongoing mental health services to help address underlying problems and prevent future life-threatening mental health crises.
• Follow-up wellness checks to ensure that the caller is safe and stable and that their immediate needs were met.
• Follow-up calls to encourage and assist the caller to connect them with ongoing services.
• Informing callers about the COPES telephone crisis line and mobile crisis services as a new resource to turn to in the future for emotional support during times of distress or psychiatric crisis.
• Informing callers about the FCS Crisis Care Center (CCC) in the event they need immediate 24/7 walk-in psychiatric assessment and/or stabilization care in the future.

TCI works to support projects in the priority funding areas of health innovation, health care workforce development and access to care for the underserved. Since 2014, TCI has awarded more than $11.75 million to 286 organizations and projects in Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado.

 

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About Family & Children’s Services

Since 1921, Family & Children’s Services (FCS) has been a safety net provider to ensure that low-income at-risk children, families, and individuals with emotional, mental health, behavioral, and family problems have a place to turn for professional help. Our agency is a leading nonprofit community mental health center serving 1 in 6 adults and children in northeastern Oklahoma through a network of 7 office locations, 60+ programs, and over 50 school/community partnerships throughout the Tulsa metro area.

Children’s programs include therapy, crisis intervention, trauma treatment, and psychiatry. Parent programs include therapy, early childhood support, and parenting. Adults with mental health issues are offered outpatient treatment, psychiatry, and multiple crisis services. Adults with addiction disorders receive treatment through criminal justice diversion programs including Women in Recovery and other outpatient services.

 

About Telligen Community Initiative

Telligen Community Initiative (TCI) is the charitable foundation of Telligen, Inc., a private, nonprofit health care intelligence company. TCI seeks to empower organizations and citizens to improve their individual and overall community health. TCI funding is designed to initiate and support innovative health-related projects designed to improve health, social well-being, and educational attainment. The foundation’s funding focuses on project support in Iowa, Illinois, Colorado and Oklahoma within the areas of health innovation, health for the underserved and healthcare workforce development. For more information about TCI, please visit www.telligenci.org