iCarol is the technology provider for the National Council’s 24 hour 1-800-GAMBLER hotline services offered through Chat and SMS/Text. Through the use of NCPG affiliates, this national hotline is staffed 24/7/365 with all calls, chats, and text messages being routed to an affiliate organization serving the help-seeker’s region. Using iCarol’s common messaging queue, all chat and SMS/Text messages are routed to the designated center so that the proper affiliate organization can answer, respond, and provide assistance to those in need.
This industry has experienced a number of changes due to the proliferation of sports betting since 2018 when the United States Supreme Court struck down a law that had prevented most states from allowing sports betting.
Those treating compulsive gambling say calls to their hotlines seeking help have increased significantly in the five years since sports betting was legalized and made available on cell phones. Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, says calls to the 800-GAMBLER help line have increased by 15% over the last five years as “states began the fastest and largest expansion of gambling in our history.”
The National Council on Problem Gambling does not take a position for or against legalized gambling, according to its mission and values. Instead, it serves as an advocate to mitigate gambling-related harm — advocating for those who are effected by problem gambling, promoting collaborative action of a broad range of people and organizations, treating those affected by problem gambling with respect, and striving to be an objective, accurate and reliable source of information for those who are concerned about problem gambling.
We look forward to the opportunity to support NCPG’s efforts and mission by attending the conference next week. iCarol is always happy to invite new NCPG affiliates to join the 1-800-GAMBLER network. If your problem gambling advocacy organization would like to learn more, please speak to us during exhibition hours at the conference, or schedule a meeting with us!
iCarol is very proud and excited to be an exhibitor at the upcoming USAging (Formerly known as n4a) conference and tradeshow from July 16-17.
This will be iCarol’s fourth year in attending USAging. We are excited to once again celebrate the work of Area Agencies on Aging, Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs), and other organizations providing services to older adults and their caregivers. In a now post-COVID world, these organizations are readjusting their services and offerings. Many services that quickly adapted to the needs of these populations during COVID-19 have now found that older adults and caregivers want to continue accessing services in the ways they did during the pandemic – virtually or through other new communication channels. And as always as the generation entering adulthood shifts, so too are those expectations from the population in how, when, and where they access services or information. Clearly, we are in a very interesting and exciting time in this industry.
At our booth we’ll have information to share about how iCarol empowers ADRCs, AAAs, and Senior Information Lines, and other services for older adults, individuals with disabilities, and their caregivers to:
Provide social connection and ease loneliness through Telephone Reassurance Programs
Collaborate with Community-Based Organizations to address Social Determinants of Health
Participate in Health/Community Information Exchanges and No Wrong Door initiatives
Provide comprehensive I&R, Closed-Loop referral and collect outcome data
Document information included on reimbursement requests
Meet people on preferred communication channels
Integrate with other software and systems
If you’re attending the conference, be sure to visit the iCarol booth to learn more, download the resources we have available, and contact us with your questions! We invite you to schedule a meeting ahead of time using our convenient online calendar here.
July Is Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, which is also known as BIPOC Mental Health Month.
July was first recognized as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in 2008, and was created to bring awareness to the struggles that underrepresented groups face regarding mental illness in the US.
Who was Bebe Moore Campbell?
Bebe Moore Campbell was an American author, journalist, teacher, and mental health advocate who worked to expose the mental health needs of the Black community and other underrepresented communities.
Each year Mental Health advocacy organizations launch their public education campaigns dedicated to addressing the mental health needs of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
Mental Health America‘s chosen theme for BIPOC Mental Health Month in 2023 is “Culture, Community, & Connection.”
Our lives are deeply intertwined with our environments, and these surroundings impact our mental health and overall wellness. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) populations are faced with disproportionate amounts of historical trauma and displacement that can challenge their ability to thrive in their environments. However, culture, community, and connection are pillars that support and uplift BIPOC individuals in the face of oppression and systemic racism. Learn more in these resources about how BIPOC communities have thrived.
You can download Mental Health America’s free BIPOC Mental Health Month Toolkit here.
On June 27, Marci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, announced over $1.5 million for three Indigenous women’s and 2SLGBTQQIA+ organizations located in Ontario. The selected organizations are:
Thanks to everyone who recently completed our survey about topics of discussion for our Customer Conference to be held in Orlando, Florida on July 30, 2023 at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld ahead of the AIRS Discovery Conference. After reading through your feedback and finalizing our sessions, today we’re announcing our agenda!
Our session titles are:
Shining a Light on Resource Data and Reports Coordinating Care: A Team Expedition Uncover Your Data’s Potential Adventure into the Horizon: iCarol User Group Discover iCarol
Read the full schedule and session descriptions here. Space is limited, so register now!
This is our second year participating in the event and we look forward to engaging with professionals working to prevent suicide in Texas. There are numerous exciting projects and initiatives happening in the state. Texas has an impressive suicide prevention collaborative made up of nearly 40 community centers working to serve the entire state, including many who operate 988 as a primary or backup center.
We encourage you to visit our virtual exhibit booth using the Whova app. At our booth you can download several materials about how iCarol is serving suicide prevention centers including 988 centers, and the tools and technology available when you work with iCarol. Our virtual booth will be staffed during conference hours – please chat in with your questions and we’ll promptly respond! If you’d like to meet with us another time to learn more, please schedule a meeting at your convenience.
June 1st marks the beginning of Pride Month, celebrated throughout North America and all across the world.
This month we honor and celebrate the LGBTQIA community — the hard-fought battles for legal equality, contributions to society, and rich history full of struggle but also one of joy and celebration.
At iCarol we live by the Harris Computer Systems core values, including the first and most important value: Respect of the Individual. Each person has the right to live authentically, without shame, stigma, discrimination, or fear of violence. And everyone deserves to live proudly and celebrate their unique selves and their special place and purpose in this world. Everyone is deserving of love and acceptance.
Unfortunately in spite of the progress made for LGBTQ+ rights over the years, there are numerous attacks and active pieces of legislation that harm this community in the US, Canada, and elsewhere.
We applaud the work of organizations working hard to protect rights for LGBTQIA / 2SLGBTQI+ individuals and families, and secure greater safety and equality for the community. Organizations across the world, including many of our customers, work hard each day to provide safe spaces for the LGBTQIA community to access services and support. We appreciate them and the life-saving work they carry out every day.
In recent years iCarol has welcomed several new customers who are Child Care Resource and Referral agencies. These agencies curate a comprehensive database of child care providers in their state, province, or region. This includes all sorts of information that parents and caregivers need when researching their options and making decisions — hours of operation, current openings, languages spoken, pre-school or educational programs offered, voucher acceptance, locations, and much more.
Child Care Resource and Referral agencies using iCarol have found that iCarol’s resource database offers the ultimate flexibility for their needs. Further, iCarol helps them document and track their interactions with parents, caregivers, and others who are inquiring about available care in their community. iCarol is also helping them send child care referrals by Email and SMS/Text, allowing them to accept online inquiries using Public Web Forms, and keep their listings updated while using less staff resources to do so with Automated Resource Verification.
If you’re going to the conference, please stop by and visit Veronica at our booth, which will be located at the entrance to the exhibition and registration area. We have lots of great information to provide, and you can also download our new eBook. We’re excited to see you in Arlington!
We’ve just added a new resource you may be interested in! Click the image below to download our newest eBook: Choosing Software for Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.
This resource is designed to help program directors and other leaders at Child Care Resource and Referral agencies wevaluate their needs for software to help them in their work connecting parents and caregivers with the best child care providers to meet their needs. We’ve even included a checklist that helps them see if the software they’re currently using or considering meets these needs.
From Wednesday, April 19 through Friday, April 21, Aaron from the iCarol team will be at the American Association of Suicidology Conference in Portland, Oregon hosting our booth in the exhibit hall and attending other events.
The conference is a convergence of professionals working across the spectrum of the suicide prevention industry, from those operating crisis centers and other direct care services, to professionals working in academic settings conducting suicide prevention research, advocates focused on prevention, education and awareness, and those with lived experience.
So we can continue to stay ahead of the topics that most impact iCarol’s customers and continue to support the work of crisis centers, Aaron will join a number of networking and information events. This includes the Lines for Life crisis center tour, and receptions and networking meetings for 988 centers.
Having supported crisis centers since the earliest days of the Lifeline network, and serving a large portion of the network that are iCarol customers, we have witnessed the Lifeline’s growth year after year, both in the number of participating centers and the volume of contacts the Lifeline receives through calls, chats, and other forms of communication, and eventually transitioning to the 988 initiative. At this year’s update we’re anticipating the latest news on the development and growth of the 988 network. We’re closely following the continuing conversations on how communities are changing their practices around responding to mental health emergencies and similar crises, with a continuing shift towards crisis intervention teams and other professionals leading the response as opposed to law enforcement.
iCarol enthusiastically supports the efforts to reimagine crisis response in communities across the United States. It’s crucial that people everywhere have access to human-focused, culturally competent crisis care that meets their needs whether that be through an empathetic listener on a crisis line, an in-person visit from a mobile crisis response team, or a stay at a crisis stabilization center. It’s our mission to provide tools to crisis centers that help them respond to their community’s needs. We hope you’ll explore our website to learn more about how we are serving this industry.
The discussions at AAS directly inform iCarol’s strategy and product development in the coming months and years, which ensures we will continue to meet the needs of suicide prevention and crisis centers everywhere, providing the tools they need to do their life-saving work. That’s why we want to ensure we take advantage of being together in-person in Portland to have conversations about challenges, needs, and solutions. If you plan to be at the AAS Conference, please stop by our booth to download our guides and materials, including our ebook on choosing software for crisis intervention and suicide prevention services. Aaron will be available for meetings at your convenience to answer your questions, or have conversations about your challenges or projects and explore how iCarol can be of assistance.
