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PLC provides statewide telephone crisis management and de-escalation support in three Delaware counties — New Castle, Kent, and Sussex — for all DFS and contract foster care programs. Calls are received from foster parents after 5pm weekdays, weekends, holidays, and inclement weather closings. Guidance is requested for youth presenting with immediate challenging behaviors and situational crises.

MSW staff provide brief lethality assessments for suicide and homicide (thoughts, intent, plan, means) and a brief mental status exam (physical appearance, orientation, movement and behavior, affect, mood, speech and communication, thought content, thought process, insight, judgment, and interaction with MSW professional and others).

Staff make referrals as indicated (Mobile Crisis, police report Line, community resources, etc.) for further mitigation and follow-up. Additionally, support line staff document the phone contact, provide details of the intervention, make secondary calls to the foster parent to assess progress/outcome, and then notify the client’s assigned worker on the following business morning with appropriate documentation of the incident and guidance provided.

These services support:
  • Foster Parents
  • Foster Care Youth
  • Foster Care Staff that may have less clinical training and experience
The positive results include:
  • Reduced MH Hospitalizations
  • Police Arrests
  • Run-away Behavior
  • Placement Disruptions