The Crisis Services and Treatment Program is designed to address the urgent needs of people with disabilities with complex behavioral health needs. Crisis Services and Treatment focuses on holistic, whole-person, trauma-informed care that supports individuals through immediate crises and onto a path of increased independence, long-term wellness, and stability.
What does the Crisis Services and Treatment Program do?
The Crisis Services and Treatment Program aims to provide individuals with disabilities and behavioral health needs who are currently residing in or at risk of being placed in institutions, jails, hospitals, and homeless shelters the option to have a home where they can develop increased independence and a sense of community via whole-person care. Through strategic collaborations and innovative service delivery, the Crisis Services and Treatment Program aims to establish a continuum of care that is both accessible and effective, ensuring individuals most at risk of being institutionalized receive the support they need to navigate challenges successfully.
The Crisis Services and Treatment Program offers:
- An approach that meets people where they are.
- Whole-person care that encompasses physical, mental, and behavioral health and wellness.
- Clinical services from crisis stabilization through comprehensive treatment that are both strengths-based and trauma-informed.
- Individualized, intensive skill training so individuals build the foundation they need to thrive.
- Tiered supports to meet each individual's unique challenges and needs.
- Minimal transitions for participants.
Why was the Crisis Services and Treament Program created?
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavioral health concerns have historically been delegated to institutions. In 2014, the movement to deinstitutionalize people with disabilities culminated in the Home and Community-Based Settings rule. This was established to ensure that all individuals with disabilities had a reasonable opportunity to remain a member of their community by bringing supports and services to them. However, the infrastructure to adequately support individuals with complex behavioral health concerns and disabilities has never been fully developed or widely accessible to those who need it.
Rather than receiving the appropriate level of care, individuals with complex needs remain boarded in inappropriate settings such as hospitals, jails, or living unhoused.
In Missouri, there are currently around 50 people facing these types of placement emergencies who require immediate support from a specialized treatment program. Nearly 300 Missourians need specialized clinical support and are currently looking for a different residential service provider than what they currently receive. Finally, 1,000 individuals in Missouri are currently experiencing high-risk outcomes. These factors lead to Missourians with disabilities transitioning from home to home, receiving sub-optimal care, and ending up in inappropriate placements.
Easterseals' Crisis and Treatment Services Program aims to offer stable, consistent, expert care for these vulnerable individuals.
About Lucas Evans, Vice President of Clinical Services
Lucas Evans has joined Easterseals Midwest to develop the Crisis Services and Treatment Program from the ground up, enhance clinical services across Easterseals, and develop a standard framework of clinical excellence. He comes to Easterseals with more than a decade of experience supporting people with co-occurring intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavioral health concerns (BHIDD), including program development and clinical services.
He is a founding member of the Missouri Alliance for Dual Diagnosis, and, most recently, co-led the Missouri Department of Mental Health's BHIDD crisis system initiative to identify and address the systemic challenges and root causes of crises.
