Quote:
Originally Posted by Martina
If you have an urgent matter that is not to crisis level and not worthy of calling 911 or going to the E.R., what do you do?
Are you allowed to call your therapist or pdoc after hours or on weekends? Do they give you someone else you can call, like an answering service?
Do you call a crisis line?
What if it's a specific question related to your medications?
|
the way things are set up for mental health around here all the mental health agencies have to have someone on call 24/7. there is a beeper that the on call person carries around with them. they carry the beeper for a week then its handed over to the next one on call. After hours the calls are "call forwarded" to the beeper number. during working hours if someone calls in and their therapist is busy they are asked if they want to leave a message or talk to the on call person while waiting for their therapist to become available. if they cant hold on until their therapist can call them back that call is forwarded to the beeper phone number.
we also do have a hot line number and the ER that people can use any time.
there have been occasions when I have had to call and be forwarded to the on call person with the beeper. Sometimes its just to ask about a medication reaction, sometimes its just to hear my therapists or the therapists on call voice because of panic or other serious problems, quite a few times it was because I could not remember my appointment day and time.
