Michael Usino of RHD New Perspectives honored with Crisis Intervention Award

Michael Usino, Director of RHD New Perspectives, was honored by the Crisis Intervention Association of Pennsylvania with the Mark “Kingfish” Wasler Memorial Award.

This award honors an exceptional individual in the fields of Crisis Intervention Services, Social Workers, Emergency Services, First Responders or Law Enforcement that have improved the lives of people living with mental illness and addiction, An individual who has helped to increase public understanding of behavioral health in their communities, and in some way devoted their lives to having a positive attitude, joyful personality, and an enthusiasm for helping others.

New Perspectives is a short-term residential program for adults in Carbon, Monroe and Pike counties, provides supervised mental health stabilization services as an alternative to psychiatric hospitalization for individuals who are in psychiatric crisis, or who may need to be removed from a stressful environment while supports are identified to ensure stability. Each year the New Perspectives residential program supports more than 300 people.

New Perspectives also provides telephone and mobile crisis intervention services that handle about 1,000 calls each month. The program provides assessment, crisis intervention counseling, crisis stabilization, referral and linkage with other services, and assessment of the need for emergency hospitalization at consumers’ homes or at other community locations.

“We present an opportunity for de-escalation for people experiencing mental health crisis,” Usino said. “We give people the opportunity to take a breather, and everybody works together to help people transition back to the community.

“We work very hard to be a trauma-informed environment, understanding that people we support are experiencing some form of trauma, and we want all our interactions and conversations to be mindful of that.”