The Crisis Action Network (CAN): Virtual Reality (VR) Case Simulation for Community Advocate (CA) Behavioral Health Skills Training

Formal Crisis Response Teams (CRT)s are evidence-informed interprofessional teams well-trained to arrive at a behavioral health incident in the community to assess, engage, and intervene according to training protocols, with the aim of getting the individual the help and support needed, reducing unnecessary law enforcement intervention. However, activation of CRTs is initiated by a 911 or 988 in-coming call triaged to a unit then deployed to the scene. The four CRT units in our county alone, for example, receive ~20-40 calls per day, with an annual steady increase in call rates, and with projections of an exponential rise in such calls in the months ahead. This is of immediate concern, requiring timely innovations to expand community crisis response capacity. This workshop will present the Crisis Action Network (CAN), an innovative paraprofessional training model that engages Community Advocates (CA)s, members of the community employed in routine community places and spaces where youth interact, who have committed to behavioral health crisis skills training through CAN. CA-CAN skill training is focused on: Awareness; Engagement; and Action, using Virtual Reality (VR) case simulation. Rudolph et al (2014) suggest Virtual Reality (VR) simulation allows participants the opportunity to take learning risks and "practice at the edge of their ability, within an unfamiliar and possibly confusing environment...[and] tolerate not knowing the exact answers to complex questions" (p.339). Our College of Public Health (CPH)s Immersive Technologies and Virtual Reality Simulation Lab, accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), uses VR case simulation to train social work, nursing and nutrition students in the clinical care skills needed to work in discipline-specific settings, as well as to train for work in interprofessional teams. This workshop will: 1) Describe the innovative CAN model; 2) Explain the life cycle of VR case design and development; 3) Demonstrate the current custom-designed VR youth community crisis case; and 4) Invite audience members to enter into the VR case wearing an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset. The case situates a youth behavioral health incident in the context of a community space. Brief Case Description: Lucia, a 17-year-old, is displaying signs of acute emotional distress, pacing near the woods at the back of school property. Upon arrival to the scene, participants must empathically engage with Lucia and assess Lucia's risk for self-harm, employ supportive de-escalation skills if needed, and coordinate with the team on an action plan. The case is unique in that, by design, it includes a variety of community professionals who together collaboratively respond to Lucia's distress. In training community partners who interact with youth in routine community places and spaces, we can maximize the trained "eyes in our community" to identify youth behavioral health crisis signals, strengthen the engagement potential for positive daily micro-interactions and whole-person health communications with youth in our communities, and potentially prevent the escalation of early distress signaling from becoming a behavioral health crisis. In casting a wider community training net, we enlarge the circle of support offered to youth in our communities.