May Mental and Behavioral Health Roundup

Expanded Referral Age Range for SAFES Program, Serving Eastern Washington Providers and Patients

The Partnership Access Line (PAL), a provider-to-provider mental health consultation program, launched a new outpatient crisis care support program called Supporting Adolescents and Families Experiencing Suicidality (SAFES) in 2023, accessible to primary care providers and patients in some eastern Washington counties (Adams, Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Grant, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pen Oreille, Spokane, Stevens). SAFES provides rapid access to suicide-specific psychotherapy in a brief four-session model. The program is based on the Crisis Care Clinic model developed at Seattle Children’s and provides in-person and telehealth crisis support services through Frontier Behavioral Health, for both the caregiver and their adolescent with suicidality crises and inadequate current supports.

To be eligible, patients must be aged 10–18, reside in an eligible county (listed above) in Washington State, have a primary care provider with active concerns about suicidality that do not warrant an ED visit, and not be engaged in other mental health services unless their current provider is unable to safely manage their care in the community. Providers who would like to refer their patient to SAFES should call PAL at 866-599-7257 or can email [email protected] for more information.  

Consider the UW RUBIES Study for Your Patients

The University of Washington is conducting a research study to learn how to best help educators support autistic children who exhibit challenging behaviors and may benefit from behavior support in the classroom. This study evaluates two different ways for educators to learn a behavioral intervention called RUBIES, which teaches educators how to use evidence-based behavioral strategies to better support their autistic students in the classroom, and to respond more effectively when behavior issues occur. The research team will be training educators to use RUBIES at the child's school and is open to participants throughout the United States. If you have a patient who is autistic, goes to a public elementary school (grades K-5), and is included in a general education setting for at least four hours a week, you may want to consider referring the patient’s family to this study. Families can learn more by completing a caregiver screener or emailing [email protected] for more information.

Please note: RUBIES enrollment has closed for the 2024-25 school year but will open again for the 2025-26 school year. Families can still complete the study screener and consent form now using the link above if they'd like to sign up for next year.

Managing a Mental Health Crisis Safely

Don’t miss this month’s article on resources to safely manage a mental health crisis.