Línea PAS: mental health crisis help, 24 hours

ASSMCA’s Integrated Crisis Intervention Program addresses the handling of psychosocial mental health crises in an innovative way and intervenes scientifically in psychosocial crises secondary to emergencies and disasters, with the aim of offering early crisis intervention from a preventive, community mental health framework with a psychoeducational approach. Crisis intervention is used at the moment of disorganization resulting from a crisis, and aims to stabilize, coordinate and assist in the process of emotional restoration, reducing debilitating effects and increasing the individual’s chances of growth or skills. The Program has six components: Línea PAS and 988; Community Outreach; the Crisis Counseling Program, which ASSMCA runs with FEMA; Educational Guidance and Training; Biosafety and Health; and the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team. The Program’s administration answers at 787-763-7575, extension 5058.

Línea PAS publishes no requirements: it is an open crisis intervention line, staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by mental health professionals. There is a specific route for deaf people: the sign-language video relay system (VRS) at 787-615-4112. The Program’s field components — Community Outreach, the Crisis Counseling Program with FEMA and the Mobile Team — are event-activated: Community Outreach responds to community emergencies and crises during the first hours after the critical incident, and the crisis counseling programmes are set up when the island or particular municipalities are declared a disaster area.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Call, chat or video call

   There are four doors and they all reach the same team. 1-800-981-0023. 988, the National Suicide Prevention Line. 787-615-4112, the sign-language video call system for deaf people. And chat at lineapas.assmca.pr.gov. The network is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals.

2. 2

   Step 2: The first thing is talking and being heard

   The service offers guidance and information on mental health and addiction, a preliminary psychosocial screening by phone using a holistic model, and a venting session, crisis counselling and emotional support working with the cognitive-behavioural model. The stated purpose of the intervention is to stabilize, coordinate and assist in the process of emotional restoration.

3. 3

   Step 3: Ask them to coordinate the evaluation or treatment

   This is what most people do not know. Línea PAS coordinates psychiatric and psychological evaluation, both ambulatory and hospital-based, and coordinates drug and alcohol rehabilitation programmes, also ambulatory and inpatient. It is not just a conversation: it is a way into ASSMCA’s treatment system.

4. 4

   Step 4: If an ambulance is needed, they coordinate it

   Among the services Línea PAS lists is ambulance coordination. If the situation requires transport, you do not have to solve it alone. And if what you have is an immediate medical emergency, 9-1-1 remains the emergency number.

5. 5

   Step 5: Ask about Ley 408 and Ley 67

   Línea PAS offers guidance on processing and filing Ley 408 and Ley 67. These are the routes for when a person needs evaluation or treatment and is not in a condition to ask for it, and this site covers them separately in the court mental health and involuntary hospitalization guides. ASSMCA also links the Ley 408 virtual form through Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico.

6. 6

   Step 6: After a disaster, there are activated programmes

   When the island or particular municipalities are declared a disaster area, ASSMCA sets up Crisis Counseling Programs with FEMA to serve survivors in the declared municipalities. Proyecto ANÍMATE was activated after the severe storm of February 2022 in Cataño, Dorado, Toa Baja, Vega Alta and Vega Baja; Proyecto ESPERANZA was activated after Hurricane Fiona in September 2022, when all 78 municipalities were declared. They offer community outreach to affected families, crisis counselling and individual and group venting sessions in communities, schools, elderly centres, agencies, churches and with disaster workers, and referrals through Línea PAS to coordinate mental health and addiction services.

7. 7

   Step 7: And there is a team that goes out

   The Mobile Crisis Intervention Team carries out immediate interventions aimed at reducing the psychological distress of those affected by a critical or traumatic situation, offering early crisis intervention, promoting wellbeing, strengthening the person’s support system and providing community support. It provides psychological support, brief emergency therapy for crisis management and in-person counselling. The Community Outreach service, for its part, offers psychological first aid during the first hours after a critical incident begins, including visits to shelters.

Línea PAS: 1-800-981-0023, or 988. Deaf people: sign-language video relay (VRS) at 787-615-4112. Chat: lineapas.assmca.pr.gov. Integrated Crisis Intervention Program administration: 787-763-7575, extension 5058. For an immediate medical emergency, 9-1-1.

• Believing the line only listens: it also coordinates psychiatric evaluation, addiction treatment and an ambulance.
• Not using 787-615-4112 when the person is deaf, which is the sign-language video call.
• Calling Línea PAS instead of 9-1-1 when there is an immediate medical emergency.
• Not asking about Ley 408 and Ley 67 when the person is not in a condition to ask for help.
• Thinking you have to wait for office hours: it is 24 hours, 7 days.
• After a disaster, not looking for the crisis counseling programmes activated for the declared municipalities.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Administración de Servicios de Salud Mental y Contra la Adicción (ASSMCA)

  ASSMCA

  www.assmca.pr.gov