South Coast Community Services Leverages Zoom to Continue Mental Health Support During COVID-19
COVID-19 has presented unique challenges for mental health providers and the patients that require their services by severely limiting the ability to meet with patients in-person. However, California-based South Coast Community Services (SCCS), one of the largest mental health providers in California, has found a solution to continue delivering care to patients and families during the COVID-19 pandemic: providing mental health services over Zoom.
In our latest case study, Scott McGuirk, SCCS’ CEO, shared how his organization leverages Zoom to continue serving patients while improving its own internal operations.
Frictionless telehealth meetings
Prior to COVID-19, SCCS’ therapists met with patients in their homes or at clinics throughout San Bernardino and Orange counties, but that quickly became unfeasible due to social distancing requirements. With Zoom’s intuitive platform and thorough support resources, SCCS can easily onboard its patients and provide them with secure, convenient therapy sessions.
“Once we can get the patients and their families on board, it’s pretty seamless,” McGuirk said. “We have a fairly large Care Coordination Team and IT team here that handle a lot of the questions that patients have, and we also offer links to the Zoom support site on our site as well.”
Improved internal communication
SCCS’ therapists and staff often travel between the organization’s 18 locations (offices, clinics, and homes) to attend meetings and training, and that required many staff members to drive hours to attend one meeting in addition to their other appointments. With Zoom, SCCS staff can easily attend meetings, participate in training sessions, and collaborate with other staff members remotely.
“I’m actually more connected now to my employees working from home than I was trying to drive between multiple locations,” McGuirk said. “If we do a meeting, we can let people stay in their work stations or at home, and they can also see things more easily since the screen is right there. We’ve also invented something called the ‘Noon Zoom,’ where I get in touch with my senior managers twice a week. Before Zoom, it was difficult to meet with them even twice a month.”
Cost savings
As a nonprofit, careful budgeting and cost reimbursement is critical to the success of SCCS. With Zoom, the organization is able to reduce its costs while maintaining its quality of care, which is important to the organization and the local governments that support them.
“We are able to rent Internet-enabled equipment and loan it out to these families, and we hope to get reimbursed for those costs by the local government. We’re actually spending less on equipment rental than we were on mileage before COVID-19 hit. Now that we use video, we are more accessible, and we can serve more people, more efficiently, with the same number of employees.”
To learn more about how SCCS is using Zoom to reduce costs and deliver effective, secure mental health counseling, read the full case study:
