Working With Clients In Behavioral Health Crisis

Name: Working With Clients In Behavioral Health Crisis
Start: 2026-08-25T10:00:00-07:00
End: 2026-08-25T11:30:00-07:00
Location: VIRTUAL EVENT

brain health insights for professionals

Working With Clients
In Behavioral Health Crisis

Dr. Dara Rampersad, First Responder and Forensic Psychologist

Tuesday, August 25, 2026 • 10am—11:30am
Virtual Event

REGISTRATION REQUIRED – closes 8/24 at 2pm

Behavioral health challenges can be a common occurrence in the journey of long-term brain injury recovery. This session will assist frontline staff in recognizing behavioral health crises early, engaging safely with clients for ongoing service delivery while understanding de-escalation protocol and how to complete a structured risk assessment with the client. Additionally, we will discuss coordination of care, documentation, and self-care after high-stress events.

Learning Objectives

Define “behavioral health crisis” and distinguish it from chronic risk or baseline symptoms.
Identify early warning signs and common crisis presentations (suicide risk, psychosis, mania, severe anxiety, intoxication, aggression).
Use a structured engagement and de-escalation approach that reduces risk and preserves dignity.
Conduct rapid, defensible risk screening (suicide/self-harm, harm to others, grave disability, abuse/neglect concerns).
Create or initiate a stabilization plan (safety plan, referrals, warm handoffs, higher level of care when indicated).
Apply legal/ethical principles (consent, confidentiality, duty to warn/protect, mandated reporting, documentation).
Collaborate effectively with mobile crisis, emergency services, family/supports, and community partners.
Use post-crisis debriefing and self-care strategies to prevent burnout and secondary traumatic stress.

SPONSORED BY

Working With Clients In Behavioral Health Crisis-Dr Dara Rampersad

ABOUT THE PRESENTER, DR. DARA RAMERSAD

Dr. Dara Rampersad is a First Responder and Forensic psychologist who is licensed in both Arizona and Hawaii. He is certified in Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) as a CIT Coordinator, and is trained in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) and FBI-Crisis Negotiator Teams (CNT).

In addition, Dr. Rampersad is licensed as a professional counselor in Colorado, and is nationally board certified in counseling, with over 27 years of experience in the mental health field.

Dr. Rampersad owns and operates BluePaz First Responder Services, which hosts annual first responder health and wellness conferences and provides counseling, consulting, coaching, critical incident stress debriefings, and training to first responders and their departments on resiliency, stress management and other pertinent topics. Dr. Rampersad helped to start the world’s first hospital-based CIT program, and he currently serves as the Security Special Operations Senior Director of Crisis Services for a large multi-state hospital system. He was also an instructor at the Naval Postgraduate School- Executive Leadership Program and trains law enforcement agencies, fire departments, hospital staff, paramedics, and other first responders on Crisis Response, PTSD, Resiliency and Mental Health Tactical Intervention (MHTI).