FEI Behavioral Health offers revenue-generating partnership opportunities for Alliance members
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Mary Murphy awoke to a telephone call. The voice on the line, a good friend, told her to turn on the news. She turned on her TV and saw the report of a plane that went down in Boston Harbor. Recalling that her son’s flight left London for Boston earlier that day, she wondered whether this was the same flight her son was on. She called her son’s wife. No answer. What does she do now?
The case of Mary Murphy, though her name and locations have been changed, highlights an experience that is common during times of crisis. It’s the driving force that keeps FEI Behavioral Health, an Alliance for Children and Families sister company, looking for ways to improve how it assists individuals in crisis sort through informational chaos, access accurate news about loved ones, and receive comfort and psychological support.
As one of the largest behavioral health care companies in the Untied States, FEI has an international client base of more than 140 companies. When a crisis strikes one of these clients, FEI turns to its more than 1,000 contracted family assistance representatives (FARs)—many of them staff at Alliance member organizations—to help respond. Often this requires immediate travel to the incident city or home community of affected families.
Beginning this year, FEI is working to improve how its crisis responses are managed by creating a new, higher-level contract position. The new role, called senior family assistance representatives (senior FARs), presents an additional opportunity for Alliance members to partner with FEI, provide staff with professional crisis management training at no cost, and access a new stream of revenue.
Acting under the direction of FEI staff, senior FARs will organize, deploy, and collectively lead groups of FARs during crisis activations. In addition to monetary benefits for their organization, individuals who serve as senior FARs will have the opportunity to increase their responsibility with FEI while applying their professional skill set to provide psychological first aid, support, and information to individuals in crisis—people like Mary Murphy.
Role of Senior FAR
FEI anticipates filling up to 10 senior FAR roles in 2009. To become a senior FAR, individuals must have crisis management experience, either though an FEI assignment or in their own community.
Senior FARs will oversee and assist FARs when they are on site during a crisis response activation. These onsite services are referred to by FEI as “psychological first aid.” They include services designed to meet basic physical and psychological needs; foster social support and ongoing care; and reduce feelings of isolation, helplessness, and powerlessness for those affected.
Dan Potterton, senior managing director for FEI’s crisis management team, explains, “FARs do not provide formal counseling; they use their specific professional skill sets to provide family assistance by creating an environment where survivors, victims, and victim families have the best opportunity to begin the healing process.”
While onsite, senior FARs will be responsible for:
- managing FARs in assisting victims and victim families;
- providing onsite operations and crisis support;
- overseeing support functions such as meet and greet, family travel, group transportation, accommodation, and information management functions;
- performing daily debriefings and operational updates; and
- providing general direction, support, and supervision to FEI’s crisis support counselors.
Between activations, senior FARs will have additional responsibilities, including:
- training and recertifying FARs;
- assisting with client engagement regarding crisis program design and consultation; and
- assisting with FEI client trainings during drills and planning exercises.
Professional and Personal Rewards
The new designation of senior FARs offers crisis responders an opportunity to increase their responsibilities with FEI, Potterton says. “These clinicians will have an opportunity to do a different type of work—rewarding professionally and personally.”
Laurie Anne Spagnola, president of Alliance member Children’s Home of York, York, Pa., has about 10 years of experience working in crisis situations, including contracted work with FEI. She has assisted with several crisis assignments, including high-profile responses related to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; the federal trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted as a conspirer in the Sept. 11 attacks; and the recent crash of a Continental Airlines aircraft in Buffalo, N.Y.
Based on her past experience, Spagnola says the senior FAR role will require many of the same skills required of FARs—a desire to help, the ability to remain calm, and an understanding of the needs of others. It will also require additional flexibility, leadership, and organization.
Lynn Kyle, executive director at Alliance member Lampion Center, Evansville, Ind., also has several years of professional experience in crisis response. In 1999 she responded to the crash of the Egypt Air aircraft off the coast of Newport, R.I.
Kyle sees the role of senior FAR as one that will require “a combination of competence and compassion, confidence without too much ego, and the ability to think on your feet and communicate well.”
For Kyle, the role of senior FAR offers the opportunity to help on a higher level. “This role will include being part of managing a well-coordinated response and helping lead a team that works seamlessly together for the benefit of the families involved,” she says.
“The Alliance members who serve as FARs and senior FARs are vital to FEI’s ability to provide superior crisis management services,” Potterton says. “It may seem like a great task to be called upon to enter a crisis site while others are being ushered out. These individuals may be called upon for their assistance at odd hours of the day or night.”
He adds, “After all, no one wants to be woken up unexpectedly—neither did Mary Murphy.”
In Murphy’s case, FEI’s network of crisis management staff confirmed that her son was on the flight that crashed and that there were no survivors. FARs helped her arrange a flight to Boston, where she met with her son’s wife, visited the crash site, and planned a six-month stay to assist with the birth of her grandchild. With the assistance of FEI’s FARs, Murphy was able to be with her family and begin the healing process.
For more information about FEI’s crisis management network, including training information, visit its responder website.
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