20-844 Learn How to Prevent Suicide and Support Recovery for Your Patients

Date: 10/27/20

This information applies to Physicians, Participating Physician Groups (PPGs), Hospitals, and Ancillary providers.

Take action to support your patients with suggested steps and helpful resources

COVID-19 is an exacerbating risk factor for suicide. Since primary care is the setting in which patients can get most of their medical and behavioral health care, it is an ideal setting for suicide prevention. As such, primary care providers and their teams are in a unique and critical position to identify and care for patients at risk for suicide.

To improve your readiness to assist such patients, consider taking these steps:

• Establish protocols for screening, assessment, intervention and referral.
• Ensure you and your staff are trained to know the signs of a patient being at risk.
• Train all staff in suicide care practices and protocols, including safety planning and lethal means counseling.
• Ensure continuity of care by transmitting patient health information to emergency care and behavioral health care providers to create seamless care transitions; follow up with at-risk patients by phone between visits.

Share these resources with your patients

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline                                                                          

Available 24 hours a day.

Languages: English, Spanish                                                    

1-800-273-TALK (8255)                                                              

suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Cal HOPE Warm Line                                                                                                           

If your patients are stressed or anxious about the COVID-19 pandemic, you can share the number for the Cal HOPE Warm Line.                                                                                                                           

(833) 317-HOPE (4673)                                                                           

calhope.dhcs.ca.gov

Online suicide prevention resources

Visit the following websites for more information:

• Know the Warning Signs and Risk Factors of Suicide 
• Suicide Prevention Toolkit for Primary Care Practices
• CALM: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means 
• Zero Suicide 
• Safety planning guide: A quick guide for clinicians 
• Training resource guide for suicide prevention in primary care settings 
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-Health Resources & Services Administration (SAMHSA-HRSA) Center for Integrated Health Solutions (CIHS)

Support recovery

You can support, inspire and celebrate recovery for patients facing mental and substance use disorders (SUDs).¹

Let them know that help, hope and support are available through the recovery process. In this process of change, patients can improve their health and wellness, live purpose-directed lives and strive to reach their full potential. There are four major areas that support recovery:

• Health: Overcoming or managing one’s disease(s) or symptoms and making informed, healthy choices that support physical and emotional well-being.
• Home: Having a stable and safe place to live.
• Purpose: Conducting meaningful daily activities and having the independence, income and resources to participate in society.
• Community: Having relationships and social networks that provide support, friendship, love and hope.

More steps you can take

• Incorporate SUD/behavioral health screenings into your primary care practice. Consider adopting the Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) approach to delivering early intervention and treatment for patients with SUDs or those at risk of developing these disorders. Learn more at the SAMHSA website.
• Ensure you and your staff are trained to know the signs and symptoms.
• Implement early interventions and provide support to patients and caregivers.
• Make swift referral to the county for SUD and to Health Net’s behavioral health subsidiary, MHN Services, LLC (MHN), for behavioral health.
• Adhere to safe prescribing practices.
• Be responsive and respectful to the health beliefs, practices, and cultural and linguistic needs of diverse people and groups.
• Let patients know about these recovery resources
• myStrength – For enrollees in recovery, the myStrength program can provide an additional resource that offers treatment-inspired exercises, meditations, self-care activities and more. If an enrollee needs emergent or routine treatment services, call MHN at 1-844-966-0298. To refer an enrollee to the myStrength program, enrollees can visit myStrength.com to sign up online or download the myStrength app at Google Play^TM or the Apple Store^®. To join online:

1    In a web browser enter www.myStrength.com/hnwell.

2    Click Sign Up. (If the patient is Spanish-speaking, see the bar at the bottom of the webpage and click Choose a language.)

3    Complete the myStrength sign-up process with a brief wellness assessment and personal profile.

• MHN – Refer enrollees who are ready for a mental health evaluation and treatment. Call 1-844-966-0298 or visit www.mhn.com/providers.html.
• Case Management – If Cal MediConnect enrollees need help or want to learn more about treatment options, refer them to Health Net Behavioral Health Case Management by calling 1-866-801-6294.
• Health Net Community Connect – The tool, powered by Aunt Bertha, is the largest online search and referral platform that provides results customized for the communities you and your health care staff serve or where enrollees live. To use the tool, go to healthnet.auntbertha.com, enter a ZIP code and click Search.
• SAMHSA’s National Helpline – A confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year information service in English and Spanish for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups and community-based organizations. Callers can also order free publications and other information. Call 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or TTY: 1-800-487-4889.
• Al-Anon and Alateen hotline. Counselors provide support to teens and adults who are negatively impacted by alcohol addiction and provide resources to group therapy nearby for ongoing support. Call 1-800-356-9996.

Online recovery resources

• SAMHSA’S Working Definition of Recovery 
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) – About Recovery 
• Keeping Youth Drug Free 
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain 
• SAMHSA’s Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Use Treatment 
• The Stages of Change – Recovery/Relapse 
• Recovery Is Possible

References: www.recoverymonth.gov and www.samhsa.gov/find-help/recovery

Additional information

Providers are encouraged to access Health Net’s provider portal online at provider.healthnet.com for real-time information, including eligibility verification, claims status, prior authorization status, plan summaries, and more.

If you have questions regarding the information contained in this update, contact the Health Net Provider Services Center by email within 60 days, by telephone or through the Health Net provider website as listed in the right-hand column on page 1.

¹ _{Any transfer of information or data between providers and/or facilities about a member’s OUD or SUD must first be authorized by the member before transferring the information or data between providers and/or facilities. This can be done by having the member sign an Authorization for Disclosure (AFD) form and designating the provider or entity that will be reviewing the member’s data.}