(May 7, 2013) It’s the Treatment Advocacy Center’s new mobile “Psychiatric Crisis Resources Kit,” a smartphone app that puts critical information into the hands of families dealing with acute psychiatric crises – whenever and wherever the emergency strikes.
In the application: state-specific standards for emergency hospitalization and for who can initiate treatment; inpatient and outpatient commitment criteria by state; tips on navigating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); and information on responding to specific kinds of psychiatric emergencies such as suicide or assault danger.
"We believe this mobile application will help address the need for immediate, practical information that families, friends and others experience when someone with a severe mental illness is in crisis," said Doris A. Fuller, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center.
Open this link on your smartphone to download the app. Scroll to “How to use this app” for instructions or hit "Share this app" to pass it along right now. If you have a blog, website or newsletter or you use Facebook or Twitter, share it there, too!
A printable flyer you can distribute in your community can be downloaded. The flyer features a QR code for the app as well as a URL. Don’t know how to use a QR code? Go to the app store on your smartphone and download a QR reader.
If you work in an emergency room or doctor’s office, with a law enforcement agency or mental health professional or anywhere that public information is posted, download this flyer with the QR code so people can download it anywhere and start using it today.