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Online Message Book
We have heard from several of you that sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the emails we send. So, to make things easier, we have decided to create an On-line message book. For those of you who were not volunteers pre-Covid, the message book was a marble notebook kept in the agency that contained information about anything and everything everybody needed to know about, including important updates and upcoming training dates. We are also going to use the on-line message book to post Community Meeting minutes and any other important email we would send so you will always be able to refer back when you need to. Many thanks to Dana for creating the online message book!!!!
The message book will be a section of the Counselor Manual. When you log into the Counselor Manual, you will see a link for LICC message book. Once you click on that you will see all information listed under Forums in memo format. If there is ever anything that you would like us to share just let a staff member know and we will be happy to add it. We will still send emails if something is urgent or time sensitive but hopefully this will cut down on the number of emails you receive from us. And, any important email we send will also be stored in the message book. Unfortunately, unless things drastically change, you will still be hearing from us regarding gaps ?
For this to work, you will need to get in the habit of reading the message book at the beginning of each and every shift. Thanks to Jean’s suggestion, we put a note on the log-in message reminding you to do so.
Upcoming S-Team Trainings
We have made changes to the way Suicide Outreach and Follow-up calls are documented. The forms are now going to be part of Infobase so that you will see everything in the actual card as opposed to having to go to the Counselor Manual to access the forms. There are also a couple of minor changes regarding when these calls should be offered. We will be hosting four trainings to review this information. The training should only take about a half hour – an hour at most – and you only need to come to one of the four trainings. An invitation asking you to respond to which training you will attend was also sent out yesterday from Christine. If you did not get the invite contact Christine so she can resend it. The trainings will be:
Monday, 4/24 at 10 am, Tuesday, 4/25 at 7 pm, Tuesday, 5/2 at 2 pm & Thursday, 5/4 at 7 pm
Interventions
In the event that you need an intervention involving the police, please reach out to a paid staff supervisor before calling 911, even if you have all the necessary information to call 911 yourself. In the past, we had said that you could call 911 yourself if you were off the call and needed the police. We now ask that you contact a supervisor before contacting 911. After discussing the situation, the supervisor may ask you to call anyway since you were the person who spoke to the client. But it is important for a supervisor to be consulted and made aware of the situation as it happens.
And, of course, you should always reach out to a supervisor if you need consultation or an intervention while you are on a call. The supervisor can listen in and communicate with you by text or Five9’s chat system. This will be updated in the Counselor Manual.
If no paid staff is logged onto Five9, go to the “LI Staff on-call calendar” section of the Counselor Manual to find the supervisor that is on-call.
Narcan Update
As most of you are aware, Narcan is a nasal spray that immediately reverses the effects of an opioid overdose and saves lives. Previously only available with a prescription, Narcan will soon be available over the counter in stores and pharmacies. We will update the substance abuse section of the Counselor Manual to reflect this as well as add updated information about Fentanyl. We also have several Agencies that will provide Narcan training in our Referral database.
Known Callers
The question periodically comes up as to whether to put caller’s phone numbers in Infobase since the number sometimes comes up on Five9. Some counselors do put the numbers and that’s fine, but we don’t ask you to do it because it’s not the most reliable way to identify Known Callers. And while we are on the subject, the consensus seems to be that there have been many more calls from Known Callers since Covid. It sounds like we all agree that there are huge differences between people who call frequently because they need an ear and some support and people who are abusive. We certainly don’t expect Counselors to speak to people who are rude or abusive. But if you get a call from someone who you identify as a Known Caller, or even someone who sounds like they may be a Known Caller, who just needs some support, speak to them for 5 – 10 minutes before ending the call. Please don’t feel like you have to ID every Known Caller or rush every known caller off the phone right away. As we have discussed many times, Known Callers are often just looking for 5 – 10 minutes to help them cope and that’s ok. Use your best judgement based on the situation.
New Phone System (Five9)
Five9 seems to be working smoothly for the most part. If you have any specific issues, reach out to Dana or Susan. If you get an error message and can take a picture, please do so as it will be helpful when trying to troubleshoot.
Helpful hints: a) If you have trouble on initial log in, clear your browser history AND cookies and try again. You can google search how to clear cookies on the browser you are using if you don’t know how.
- b) Be sure your screensavers are off as the system will log you off if your computer automatically jumps to a screen saver.
- c) We are noticing that when counselors have too many tabs/applications open, occasionally they get logged out of five9. So, if possible, limit the amount of stuff you have open during your shift.
Five9 does not allow us to break counselors into groups when they are logged in. So, when looking to see which Paid Administrative Staff are on Five 9, and therefore available for consultation, they are listed with their first and last names. 988, Helpline and H line Counselors are listed with their First name followed by 988, Helpline or H line next to it. All Volunteer Counselors are listed with their First name followed by LICC.
Recording Calls – One of the features of Five9 is that it records all calls. New York is a one-party consent state, meaning as long as the person answering the phone knows that the calls are being recorded, we don’t need to tell the callers as part of the call greeting. If a caller asks you if the calls are recorded, you can say “calls may be recorded for supervisory and training purposes but would never be used to listen to client information.” Keep in mind that callers calling 988 hear the message that “all calls are recorded for training and quality assurance purposes” as that is part of the greeting set up by the Lifeline.
Phone Numbers – If someone asks if you can see their phone number, it’s up to you how you choose to respond but you can honestly say “I have no way of tracking you down by your phone number even if I wanted to.” Or you could say “The system sometimes displays a number, but it is not always accurate.” Both answers are true so you would not be lying.
Reminders
If you need to cancel your shift within 24 hours, you should go to the schedule on Infobase and click on the shift and hit cancel. When you do this, it will ask you to send an email to [email protected] which will generate an email to all administrative staff so that one of us will be likely to see it and take you off the schedule.
Christine is going to be updating the Counselor Manual over the next few months. If you notice anything that is missing or incorrect, please send her an email.
As always, if you are aware of any Referrals that you think should be added to our database, send Christine an e-mail so she can check them out.
Next Community Meetings will be held the second week in May
Tuesday, May 9th at 7 pm and Wednesday May 10th at 11 am
AS ALWAYS, THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO!
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