Hello Again!

Thank you for your interest in Listen Line Community Services!

Here’s what I’ll present this week:

1. What’s needed for us to get started?
2. Introduction of the Board of Directors

What’s Needed

Listen Line must be effective and long-lasting. To accomplish this, we need the right people, the right processes, and the right technology. I’ll explain a little further:

People

On-Call Specialists: Listen Line employees

This team will include healthcare professionals such as nurses, counselors, therapists, or other licensed caregivers. All will have at least some background in mental health. To start offering services, we need 20 people to staff the line 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We currently have 10.

Community Resources: Our caregiving network

These are services that will be offered outside of Listen Line Community Services. We will share information about how they work and help clients get connected with them. We will rigorously vet providers and insist on research-backed solutions. Beyond traditional counseling and therapy, some examples are: nutritional counseling, neurofeedback, reflexology, and body manipulation therapy. As I research and gather this information, please contact me if you are a licensed provider of these or other areas not listed and are interested in my vetting process for this important work.

Processes

Listen Line will provide professional, calm, and competent help for anyone struggling with mental health. Strong processes will provide consistent results. Our specialists will:

• Listen
• Provide crisis management where applicable
• Link clients with appropriate services
• Be a competent resource for ongoing care

Developing these processes will take time.

As Manager of Clinical Education at Oregon Health Sciences University, developing processes is part of my job. I know what it takes. I also know what a difference it can make for an organization. The design and implementation of these new processes will require a minimum 2 months time.

Technology

Phone System

There will be one phone number to call. Calls will have to be routed through a system to whomever is on call at the time. This is a system that needs to be purchased and set up. 

Health Record System

In order to best serve the community, we have to be able to document the calls in a HIPAA compliant way. This way, callers do not have to retell their story if they call more than once. With their permission, we can easily share their record as needed with the care giver they chose to see.

Hardware

Listen Line staff will need equipment. A cell phone and a computer at a minimum. Listen Line Community Services will provide some of that. Decisions on how much to provide and to whom need to be made, and the equipment acquired.

Board of Directors

Jodine Dixon Jodine Dixon is an attorney at Dixon Law PLLC in Battle Ground and she does Estate Planning, Probate, Small Business, and Guardianships.  She is on the task force for getting a YMCA in Battle Ground and has assisted several nonprofits.

Sabrina Korpela Ms. Korpela is currently Senior Security Program Manager at Microsoft. Her areas of expertise include project management, as well as software development, training, and support. She has also volunteered with Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children.

Brian Stewart President of Stewart Mechanical, Mr. Stewart has 20+ years of experience in project management, budgeting, and scheduling. His experience includes building a business during both tough economic times and periods of expansion, as well as human resource management.

We have two open positions. We are looking for people with experience in mental health or with running a service-oriented business like Listen Line Community Services.

Next Week

I want to talk about our vision for the future of Listen Line. It deserves its own post!

Your Call to Action

• Tell us who you know that may wish to sponsor Listen Line Community Services!
• Contribute what you can. Every dollar raised counts!
• Let your people know about us.

Until next week… take care of you!

Sharla

sharla@listenline.life