To return to Convening's homepage, click here.
To return to Convening XXIX's Table of Contents, click here.
H. Reese Butler II
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
2001 N. Beauregard St., 12th floor
Alexandria, VA 22311
The CRIES application provides the mechanism for Crisis Centers to collect data about a call - either during the call or
after the call is completed. It is intended to provide a single point of entry for all data related to the call. Imbedded in
the application is a lethality assessment protocol. This protocol provides the general questions that can help a worker
determine the suicide risk of a person in crisis. Because this data is collected in a relatively uniform manner (e.g. a
limited set of questions and responses are provided), reporting of calls within a Crisis Center is easily standardized.
Dial Help currently uses CRIES to provide call information to clinicians. The clinicians are given access to the specific
groups they are entitled to review. The call reports can then be used by the clinicians to quickly determine appropriate
actions to take for each caller. Additionally, reports exist for calls entered by an individual worker, summary of calls
made during any given period, regional and utilization reporting.
How to alter/expand/change the system for other Crisis Centers
The CRIES application has been in production use by Dial Help since October 2003. During this period numerous
changes have been made to the system to accommodate true business requirements. These changes have been made
with an eye toward general use of CRIES within the Crisis Center community. The most significant change to the
system has been the creation of a separate reporting subsystem. This allows the relatively easy inclusion of new reports
and modification of existing reports.
KBHC owns the source fort he CRIES application and has made some modifications to the base system. These
changes have focused on adding fields to the system to allow for greater control on reporting and to make data entry
more straightforward.
Dial Help has provided the nucleus of a User Community. They have provided suggestions for change that have been
documented on the CRIES Queue. Items on the queue are prioritized and worked on by order of importance. Ass new
Crisis Centers begin to use the application, they will have input to the CRIES Queue. Through regular meetings of the
User Community, items on the Queue will be discussed (added, changed, deleted, prioritized) and subsequent actions
take to fulfill the needs of the Community.
To return to Convening's homepage, click here.
To return to Convening XXIX's Table of Contents, click here.