The Washington National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) crisis center capacity expansion project will provide behavioral health workforce capacity and services that are culturally, geographically, and linguistically specialized and relevant for people in Washington who experience a behavioral health crisis. Data-driven efforts have led to the creation of the first Washington Indian Behavioral Health Hub and Tribal Crisis Line and chat/text service provision in Washington state; however, additional capacity is needed to provide additional relevant services to the communities we serve, and to ensure capacity can scale at the same rate as call, chat and text volume due to 9-8-8 implementation. Although Washington provides full geographic primary coverage, we rely on out-of-state NSPL centers to provide backup. With a projected (per Vibrant, medium call estimates) of 156,100 calls handled in year 1 and up to 424,600 calls handled in year 5, and significant behavioral health provider shortages, Washington must be creative in order to fund and sustain capacity. With this funding, Washington NSPL member centers will work to increase their staffing capacity to 100.0 FTE, establish a student intern program and follow-up program, and develop in-house training capacity to help develop the Behavioral Health workforce and recruit and retain employees.
The project team, which includes members from the Department of Health, all three Washington NSPL member centers, Health Care Authority and Washington 911, will work together to plan for capacity building, sustaining, and service coordination. Over the course of the project years the team will submit Washington’s quality improvement plan, plan for chat/text service expansion, sustainability plan for member center workforce capacity and meeting key performance indicators, and the centers will develop their follow-up programs, student intern programs, and training and professional development plans. The team will evaluate monthly, quarterly and annual data including the Network’s key performance indicator data to identify solutions to address capacity challenges. This team has strong working relationships and has collaborated on initial technology planning and previous preparation efforts for 9-8-8 implementation (ie. via a coalition funded by Vibrant Emotional Health).
The Washington state team is prepared to initiate work, if funded, without delay. Contract amendments are ready to pass at minimum 85% of the funding allocation to the three NSPL member centers. The Department of Health is prepared to shift staffing FTE to ensure no delays occur due to hiring. Team members have laid important groundwork for planning efforts thus far and if funded, are excited to support capacity building efforts immediately.