With one click, Tulsa, Okla.-based Grand Mental Health is expanding behavioral health crisis care to local emergency departments and first responders by embedding technology into daily workflows and streamlining care delivery, Carl Hoopes, COO and executive vice president of the organization, told Becker’s.
Grand Mental Health operates a model with three key components: iPads equipped with an integrated support access app that connects users to a mental health professional, urgent recovery centers that provide crisis stabilization services and on-site staff who answer calls from iPads or phones, according to the organization’s website.
The organization’s crisis app connects 18,000 clients to its 24/7 crisis team via video, while the 988 crisis hotline offers a parallel phone-based entry point into the same broader crisis response system.
“Our goal really is to keep people out of the ED before they even get in there,” Mr. Hoopes said. “We’re also integrated with many police departments, fire departments, where they can, if they respond to a person who is in crisis, they click the app, call us and we answer.”
From March 1, 2025, to March 1, 2026, the organization has taken 4,154 iPad crisis calls from emergency departments, and 232 crisis calls through the crisis line, with a 100% diversion rate for individuals who do not meet the urgent recovery center exclusion criteria. These facilities provide short-term crisis stabilization but are not meant to manage serious medical conditions. When individuals do meet the exclusion criteria, Grand assists with ED placement referrals to facilities and provides transportation when medically safe.
The crisis team evaluates each situation and determines the appropriate level of care, he said. Options may include virtual counseling through the iPad, transporting the patient or transferring them to one of the organization’s local facilities. In some cases, individuals are connected with an outpatient visit once stabilized.
The organization recently began partnering with St. Louis-based Ascension to embed clinicians in large clinics.
“If they have a client come in and our resources could be beneficial, we would admit them through Grand into our system and begin seeing them, and have that presence on-site so they don’t need to drive somewhere else. They have those services available,” Mr. Hoopes said. “Then, if they need more specialized services, we can get them appointments into one of our facilities.”
Academic institutions such as The Ohio State University in Columbus have also integrated the app in their EDs.
The level of integration varies by partnership, depending on local need, Mr. Hoopes said. In some cases, Grand partners with local police departments that have access to the organization’s crisis call line. In others, a mental health professional may be embedded in a police department. The organization currently partners with 13 counties.
As part of those efforts, the organization has an outreach team that actively searches for individuals in need of services.
“We’re currently partnering with the city of Tulsa to have an impact with people experiencing homelessness. Going to them and proactively providing housing support and mental health solutions,” Mr. Hoopes said. “We go out in every area of the community to try and be as proactive as possible to help people where they need it most.”
