Crisis Service Aims to Keep Youth in Their Homes and Communities

When children, youth, and young adults experience a behavioral health crisis, parents and caregivers may not know what to do, or face limited options, which may not always be the most appropriate. But Alliance members in all six counties we serve will soon have access to a community-based program that brings help to youths and families in crisis.

MORES (Mobile Outreach Response Engagement Stabilization) provides a team of specially trained crisis responders to address the immediate needs of youth and families experiencing a behavioral health crisis and help connect them to community resources and providers to reduce the need for hospitalizations and out-of-home placement. The service is currently available to Alliance members in Wake and Cumberland counties and will be launched in Orange, Durham, Johnston and Mecklenburg counties in early 2023.

MORES teams can help keep children out of restrictive residential settings, prevent the need for law enforcement involvement in children’s mental health crises and connect families more rapidly to community-based services. According to the NC Department of Health and Human Services, MORES teams in other states have kept more than 90% of the children they served out of the hospital and stabilized in their current living situation.

Melissa Payne, a provider network development specialist at Alliance Health, said a MORES team responds within an hour to a call made by a youth’s parent or primary caregiver. The team includes a consulting clinician as well as a family partner, who has firsthand experience as a recipient or parent/caregiver of someone who has received mental health, substance use or intellectual/developmental disability services and is trained to help connect families to local resources, find services and supports, and learn to advocate for themselves.

The team provides crisis intervention, de-escalation and assessment onsite and connects the family to community resources and providers for ongoing care. Unlike traditional mobile crisis services, the team continues to work with the youth and caregiver until they are engaged in care with a provider.

“What makes MORES unique and sets it apart from mobile crisis is that the team can stay involved with the family for up to eight weeks,” Payne said. “And there really is a focus on supporting the parent as well as the as the youth. The idea is that the child should stay in their own bed and the intervention should keep kids at home.”

“I’m excited about the service because it’s completely different from the normal approach that focuses on the need for more crisis beds or residential placements,” Payne said. “This program is an attempt to prevent that need. We’re going much further upstream to keep kids at home with their families.”

The Cumberland County MORES is operated by Communicare. Alliance members can reach it by calling 910-222-6079.

The Wake County MORES program is operated by KidsPeace. Alliance members can reach it by calling 484-215-6756.

MORES will launch next in Mecklenburg County, where it will be operated by Carolina Outreach and SPARC, and then in Durham, Johnston and Orange counties, where it will be operated by KidsPeace.