Youth Rapid Response Team (YRRT)
Suicide-focused care provided at no cost to youth and young adults, ages 5–25, who live in Shasta County.
Why We Created This Program
Shasta County lacks a specially-trained workforce and resources to support youth at risk of suicide or struggling with self-harm and substance use. This program helps create immediate safety for youth with the goals of keeping them in their homes whenever possible and safe, reducing time spent in Emergency Departments, lowering the number of youth placed on involuntary 72-hour holds (5150/5585), and decreasing the number sent to inpatient care. Once stabilized, the team works with the youth and their family to build both a Safety Plan and a Wellness Plan, addressing risk factors and protective factors together. Ongoing support is provided for up to 3 months, including crisis counseling for the youth and weekly family group classes with Peer Youth and Parent Coaches.
What You Can Expect
YRRT provides rapid response (within 1 to 12 hours) and stabilization services for youth ages 5 to 25 and their families who are experiencing significant behavioral or emotional distress related to self-harm, substance use, or suicide. Our team can help prevent a crisis from developing, support youth in the midst of a crisis, help them move safely through a crisis, or help them heal after one. Because distress affects the whole family, not just the young person, YRRT uses a family systems approach. We offer a continuum of services through three stages.
Stage 1: Rapid Response
- Available 365 days a year, with rapid response and initial contact within 1–12 hours of outreach.
- Dedicated phone line for calls and texts, open 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM.
- Follow-up response within 3 hours, except during nighttime hours.
- Messages received after 10:00 PM are answered the following morning.
- Initial meetings are held face-to-face at The Lotus Center (TLC).
- If needed, meetings can also take place at the youth’s school, local hospital, or another community location convenient for the family.
- Virtual appointments are available for families who cannot meet in person.
- Referrals are accepted from youth, families, clinicians, educators, youth-serving agency staff, medical professionals, MCOT, CIRT, and others.
Stage 2: Assessment & Safety Planning
- Youth-focused, evidence-based screening and assessment tools, including the ASQ, the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), and the Brief Suicide Safety Assessment (BSSA) Worksheet for outpatient youth
- Safety planning using the ASIST Safety Framework and the Stanley Brown Safety Plan, with youth-focused safety and wellness components added
- All decisions, services, and supports guided by the Zero Suicide Framework
- Each youth also creates a Wellness Plan, customized to focus on what makes their life more manageable and enjoyable
Stage 3: Ongoing Stabilization Services
- No-cost services for up to 3 months
- Weekly or twice-weekly individual crisis counseling, provided by clinicians trained in suicide-focused care for youth using CAMS, CAMS-4Teens, and CAMS-BI
- 9-week family group classes using the evidence-based Wellness Compass curriculum, with separate sessions for the youth (with a Youth Coach) and parents (with a Parent Coach), plus a closing whole-group session
- Individual youth and parent peer support available throughout the program
Our Approach
All supports and services are trauma-informed, culturally responsive, family driven, and youth guided. Activities and classes are offered when families are available, including evenings and weekends, and are individualized to each family’s needs and preferences. The team offers lived-experience support to the youth and family while connecting them to other services the family identifies as important.
Meet Our Team
Director, Trainer, Crisis Counselor
Marcia brings a warm, energetic commitment to supporting young people, drawing on a lifetime of personal and professional experience in mental health, substance use, and suicide awareness. Motivated to do more than improve lives — she’s determined to save them — Marcia helps youth build “lives worth living.” After losing her brother Eric to suicide in 2009, she’s learned from the experts AND people with lived experience, and since founding Lotus Educational Services in 2013 has delivered hundreds of community trainings and countless hours of crisis counseling. This innovative program, the YRRT, is her dream come true — the culmination of over 3 decades of learning how best to bring hope and healing to youth and their families here in Shasta County.
Youth Coach
Director, Trainer, Crisis Counselor
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Parent Coach
Director, Trainer, Crisis Counselor
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How to Access the YRRT
You can reach the Youth Rapid Response Team (YRRT) three ways: call, text, or fill out our Google Form.
Phone / Text:530-440-6717
7 AM – 10 PM:
Calls are answered immediately if a clinician is available.
Otherwise, we’ll respond within 3 hours.
10 PM – 7 AM:
Text or leave a message.
We’ll respond the next morning between 7 AM and 10 AM.
Disclaimer
This program has been funded by the County of Shasta through the California Behavioral Health Services Act.
