Mental Illness Awareness and Customer Service: An October confluence of ‘weeks’
If one were to ponder the most complicated undertakings in the world of healthcare, I believe that effective management of mental/behavioral health would be very close to the top of that list. I can say from personal experience that some amazing improvements have been made over the last 20-30 years and continue to be made. But (and isn’t there usually one of those), there is still more to be done, particularly when it comes to access to services—both emergent and routine.
I will absolutely agree that this probably would have been a good post (timewise) sometime back in Spring, given that May 2024 was Mental Health Awareness Month (and has been celebrated in May since 1949). The theme for 2024 was “Take The Moment,” which aimed at encouraging folks to “foster open dialogues, cultivate empathy and understanding and to share resources to support individuals and families on their journey towards mental wellness.” But, since we’re coming up on Mental Illness Awareness Week (October 6-12), as well as Customer Service Week (October 7-11) I think we can use this opportunity to help the continued focus on awareness and the processes through which folks might obtain assistance.
If you’ll bear with me for a moment, I have a little bit of a digression, but I promise I’ll loop it back into our topic this week!
One of my most favorite things to do is to listen to the telling/retelling of stories while listening to the radio in a car. Later in the day (towards evening and into the night) seem to be the times when the telling of stories is most powerful. And when that power is dedicated to the telling of stories about how things came to be—a.k.a. the “back story”—I find a certain magic in the medium. That’s not to say that I am not a visual person, looking at stuff is pretty much what I do for a living, but there’s nothing like a compelling audio presentation to really transport me to all sorts of places.
If you happen to have access to satellite radio services, there is a channel called PRX, which is an acronym (sort of) for the Public Radio Exchange. PRX consists of a flowing stream of all sorts of stories (some short, some fairly lengthy). One of the programs that can “float” by in the stream is called Radiolab. Back in March 2024, Radiolab broadcast a piece on what is described as “the story of the highest-stakes hold music in the universe.” The back story is that, approximately two years ago, the federal government established 988; a nationwide, easy to remember phone number that anyone can call anytime and talk to a counselor, much like a 911 for mental health. The hope was that such a service could save lives. However, if you call 988, the first thing you hear is hold music. The Radiolab piece focuses on the challenges of providing support to persons in distress and how the best of intentions don’t always result in the best of support. As a cautionary tale, I do think that it speaks to the importance of how our customers interface with us via technology, particularly as a function of the establishment of barriers. How peak volumes are managed can often be indicative of the successful implementation of any service. Can your process continue to smoothly handle spikes or do wait times become so intolerable that potential users are bailing on the process?
I think the overarching task is to ensure that any customer interface is as tolerable as possible—from the music to which someone is subjected to when they are on hold to the ease with which a work order can be entered and tracked by the folks in the point of care/point of service environment(s). So, the homework assignment is this: call your own helpline (if you have one) and see how tolerable it might be for someone trying to expedite resolution of an issue. You might be surprised…
Clearly, the example used for the Radiolab episode is something of an extreme, but (and particularly as AI makes its way into more and more processes) I think it’s a sufficiently universal topic as to shed light on other, perhaps lesser, customer processes. Think about how much time you’ve spent waiting in some sort of queue, most of it not particularly pleasant, I’m guessing. But if the goal of any customer interface is to be helpful, it never hurts to “take the moment” and periodically monitor your own processes to ensure that everyone in line receives efficient and effective service.
Caveat emptor: there are some ads involved, as well as some salty language, but they don’t get in the way of the Radiolab story.
About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a safety consultant with The Chartis Group. He brings more than 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is the author of HCPro's Hospital Safety Director's Handbook and is an advisory board member for Accreditation and Quality Compliance Center. Contact Steve at stevemacsafetyspace@gmail.com.