211 Awarded 5 Year Re-accreditation

211 Palm Beach/Treasure Coast has successfully completed a three month process for re-accreditation by the American Association of Suicidology (AAS).  The goal of the American Association of Suicidology is to understand and prevent suicide and one way this mission is accomplished is by fostering the highest possible quality of suicide prevention, intervention and postvention to the public.  AAS accreditation validates that service delivery programs are performing according to nationally recognized standards.

The final AAS certification report, received February 2010, recognized 211 as having staff and management that are committed to providing a high level of service. Specifically, the report stated “This is a well managed, high functioning program that serves a central role in providing mental health care, disaster relief, elder support and Information and Referral in the south-east Florida area. They are well integrated into their communities and have productive cooperative relationships with the major government and private agencies in their counties.”

Areas evaluated within the AAS accrediting process included: Administration and Organizational Structure, Training Program, General Delivery System, Services in Life-Threatening Crisis, Ethical Standards and Practice, Community Integration, and (Internal) Program Evaluation.

211 Palm Beach/Treasure Coast has been serving Palm Beach County since 1971 and the Treasure Coast Counties since 2002.  This non profit agency people in need by providing crisis intervention, suicide prevention, information, assessment and referral to community services 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Last year 211 answered over 160, 000 calls from people in need of essential services. Of this number, 1,659 individuals were suicidal and/or requesting information on suicide risk factors.