Advancing Suicide Prevention and Crisis Care at Carelon Behavioral Health

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Advancing Suicide Prevention and Crisis Care at Carelon Behavioral Health

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast – September 3, 2025
Guests: Dr. Jessica Chaudhry (Medical Director, National Accounts, Carelon Behavioral Health)
Dr. Jeffrey Hyde (Head of Crisis Center of Excellence, Carelon Behavioral Health)
Host: Lucas Voss

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Main Theme

This episode focuses on suicide prevention and crisis response strategies at Carelon Behavioral Health. In recognition of Suicide Prevention Month, the conversation explores innovative programs designed to reach individuals at risk before crisis occurs, the populations most affected, and the evolving role of the national suicide lifeline (988) in transforming crisis care.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction of the Guests and Their Roles

[01:04–01:49]

• Dr. Jeffrey Hyde describes his nearly two decades of crisis care experience, from direct intervention and call centers to his current leadership role:

  “I’ve been working in crisis services for close to 20. So I’m a psychologist and clin by background and have spent the majority of my life working in crisis systems of care...” (Hyde, 01:13)

• Dr. Jessica Chaudhry highlights her psychiatric background and her decade with Carelon, leading national health programs including suicide prevention:

  “…I am the medical Director for National Accounts at Carelon Behavioral Health...developed some exciting health programs…including the suicide prevention program…” (Chaudhry, 01:49)

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2. The Carelon Suicide Prevention Program (SPP)

[02:23–05:15]

• Launched in 2020 after years of planning and analytics review.
• Utilizes predictive modeling and analysis of claims data to identify those at highest risk for suicide, both for first attempts and recurrences.
• Risk factors assessed include:
  • Substance use
  • Behavioral health service history
  • Social drivers of health
  • Medical conditions linked to increased risk (e.g., pain disorders, asthma)
  • Previous attempts
• The program expands beyond mental health to include medical factors. The aim is proactive intervention—identifying a critical window of about five months to engage individuals through case management and resource connection.

  “…what we wanted to do with all of this was create a window of time where we could avert a crisis from happening...there's about around five months that we can intervene…” (Chaudhry, 04:36)

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3. Populations Most at Risk for Suicide

[05:55–06:59]

• Adolescents are commonly perceived as high-risk, especially teenage girls whose risk is rising.
• Older adults, particularly men, are also highly vulnerable, often due to isolation, chronic illness, pain, or bereavement.
• LGBTQ+ populations face disproportional risk due to isolation or lack of belonging.

  “…every age group has that potential risk for suicide...older adults...among men, often tied to isolation, chronic illness, pain, or loss…” (Hyde, 05:55)

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4. Strategies to Engage At-Risk Groups

[06:59–08:54]

• For older adults: Connecting them to resources, peer groups, and legacy planning.
• For adolescents: Building a team-based, family-inclusive support system, identifying adult mentors, and fostering engagement.

  “…supporting them through new and creative ways to connect with others...finding interests later in life...for the younger age group...we really work hard to build a team around some of these younger children…” (Chaudhry, 07:14 & 08:03)

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5. The Role of 988 and Crisis Care Coordination

[08:54–10:22]

• 988, the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, is now central to responding to mental health crises.
• Carelon integrates national SAMHSA standards—ensuring someone to talk to (hotlines), someone to respond (mobile crisis), and a safe place to go.
• Emphasis on adapting strategies to fit local contexts and ensuring coordination among services.

  “…national standards are fantastic, every system at a local level is very nuanced...our goal is to engage at that local level while understanding the national standards…” (Hyde, 09:35)

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6. Final Thoughts: Hope and Progress

[10:41–11:39]

• Dr. Chaudhry emphasizes the importance of open dialogue and the real hope that suicide prevention programs can offer:

  “…we’ve really seen some great success in reducing the rates of suicide…and more importantly, we've really been able to offer some hope to people that there are alternatives…” (Chaudhry, 10:41)

• Dr. Hyde lauds the growth and impact of 988 as both a crisis intervention and an access point to broader behavioral health services:

  “…Crisis lines like 988 can be an access point to behavioral health services...it's just imperative that we continue to support 988 and support the training of our staff.” (Hyde, 11:39)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On predictive intervention:

  “...there's about around five months that we can intervene and we can really change the trajectory for someone by offering proactive intervention...”
  (Dr. Chaudhry, 04:36)

• On risk across the lifespan:

  “…every age group has that potential risk for suicide...it’s also important to acknowledge the high risk for, for older adults…”
  (Dr. Hyde, 05:55)

• On the need for strategic, customized crisis response:

  “...our intent or our goal is to be able to engage at that local level while understanding the national standards and understand more at a local level how we can engage, create coordinated systems of care…”
  (Dr. Hyde, 09:35)

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Important Timestamps

• [02:23] – Launch and rationale of the Suicide Prevention Program (SPP)
• [05:55] – Discussion of at-risk populations
• [06:59] – Outreach strategies to vulnerable groups
• [08:54] – The impact of the 988 lifeline on Carelon’s crisis care model
• [10:41] – Reflections on hope and program impact

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Overall Tone

The conversation is deliberate, informed, and hopeful, balancing the gravity of the topic with practical optimism. Both Dr. Chaudhry and Dr. Hyde stress the need for proactive, systemic, and compassionate approaches. They highlight innovative tools, evidence-based strategies, and the critical role of collaboration at both national and community levels.

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Transcript

[A]

Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's Healthcare. Thanks so much for tuning in to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. September is Suicide Prevention Month, a vital time to raise awareness, offer hope, and inspire meaningful action on one of the most pressing mental health challenges of our time. And today I'm very excited to be joined by Dr. Jessica Chaudhry, medical Director, National Accounts, Carillon behavioral health, and Dr. Jeffrey Hyde, head of Crisis center of Excellence, also with Carillon Behavioral Health. They'll share their perspectives on this critical and the important work they're doing to support individuals and communities across the country. And just a quick reminder before we jump in, this podcast discusses mental health issues and suicide. If you or someone you know has suicidal thoughts or is experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or dial or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis lifeline. And with that, Dr. Chaudhry and Dr. Haidt. Thanks so much for being here today. It's great to have you.

[B]

Thank you. It's great to be here.

[C]

Thank you for having us on.

[A]

Absolutely. I do want to start with introductions for our audience here. Dr. Heidt, if you want to start us off, could you just share a little bit about yourself and your work in healthcare?

[B]

Absolutely. As you mentioned at the outset, my name is Jeff Heit. I am the head of our National Crisis center of Excellence here at Carillon Behavioral Health. I've been a part of Carillon for just over eight years and have been working in crisis services for close to 20. So I'm a psychologist and clin by background and have spent the majority of my life working in crisis systems of care, from crisis call center work to mobile crisis outreach and intervention. And I'm now more in the administrative side.

[A]

Great to have you on. Absolutely. Dr. Chaudhry, over to you.

[C]

Well, thank you so much for having me on today. I'm really excited to join this podcast. A little bit about me. My name is Jessica Chowdhury. I'm a psychiatrist by training and and I am the medical Director for National Accounts at Carillon Behavioral Health. I've been with the organization just around a decade, and I've been able to develop some exciting health programs that I think have really made a difference, including the suicide prevention program, which I'm really looking forward to speaking more about.

[A]

Yeah, I'm so excited to hear about it, too. And it's great to have you both on. Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death in the United states. And in 2020, Carillon Behavioral Health launched the Suicide Prevention Program, or SPP, to help reach people before they are in crisis. Dr. Chaudhary, I'd love to start off with you on this one. Can you walk us through how the program works and the impact it's having today?

[C]

I'm happy to walk through the suicide prevention program and how it works and why we really started the program. We launched this program in 2020 after spending almost a couple of years really thinking seriously about how we can make a difference in this. This emerging and pervasive national crisis of suicide. And what we came up with, after a great deal of deliberation and looking at analytics, was a program that is based on predictive modeling and predictive analysis, but that also examines claims data and looks at people who are really at the highest risk for suicide, either a first suicide attempt or a subsequent suicide attempt. And there are a number of different factors that go into this analysis. There can be things like issues around substance use, different interactions with behavioral health at various levels of care, prior suicide attempts. We also look at things like social drivers of health. And very importantly, the program is not just behavioral health focused, it's also medically focused, meaning we really examined some issues that are closely linked to suicide and other behavioral health problems from a medical standpoint. So things like pain and pain disorders or headaches or even certain respiratory conditions, for example, like asthma, can be a little bit more risky for behavioral health. And what we wanted to do with all of this was create a window of time where we could avert a crisis from happening. And the suicide prevention program found that there is a window of time, there's about around five months that we can intervene and we can really change the trajectory for someone by offering proactive intervention through case management and through resource connection.

[A]

Yeah. And I feel like enabling that proactivity then can really lead to better results, which is so key, especially because, as we mentioned in the onset of the conversation, it remains the leading cause of death in the United States. Dr. Hyde, I'd love to come to you here on this next question. We've seen that this affects a lot of different folks from a lot of different groups of people. Right. So especially adolescents. It's a substantial public health concern for them when it comes to behavioral health. But there are also other vulnerable groups. Which populations are most at risk today, and what factors contribute to that heightened vulnerability?

[B]

Yeah. Thank you. I mean, I think, as you mentioned, we often think about adolescents as most at risk for suicide. But beyond that, I mean, I think every age group has that potential risk for suicide, while adolescence is most prevalent. I think we also see a higher rate of prevalence in older adults who may be at risk of completing suicide, particularly among men, often tied to isolation, chronic illness, pain, or loss of loved ones. So I think it's also important to acknowledge the high risk for, for older adults. Beyond that, I also think that there's, you know, factors at play regarding gender and identity. So often LGBTQ populations may be more at risk because for similar reasons that that isolation or that lack of belongingness that sort of prevails.

[A]

Yeah. And Dr. Chaudhary, I wanted to come to you here on this follow up. What are some of the specific strategies you're seeing to reach and engage some of these groups?

[C]

Yeah, well, like Dr. Height mentioned, those are some of the populations that are at greatest risk. For example, the older adult population is a highly risky population, and loneliness plays a big role in that population in particular, or for people that have comorbid medical and behavioral health conditions or maybe facing certain illnesses. So, for example, connecting older adults to resources is a big part of what we do. Supporting them through new and creative ways to connect with others and interact with their peer group and finding interests later in life for people that may be facing serious illness. We talk about legacy planning and how to leave that legacy behind that you're really proud of. We're really seeing more and more of these vulnerable populations, not just in the older age group, but also, as has been mentioned, really in the young adolescent and young adult population. Especially, for example, the risk to teenage girls is very much on the rise. And part of how we can help with that, again, is also getting the family involved. And really thinking about this as a team based approach, we really want to, particularly for the younger age group, we really want to identify who are the adult mentors, who's involved with that child's life, how can we work with them and how can we engage with them? And we really work hard to build a team around some of these younger children and support them in the best way that we can.

[A]

You mentioned something very important, which is this can be a strategic approach. There can be a strategic approach to be able to tackle some of these issues. Right. Again, we mentioned at the onset of our conversation, 988, and it's become a critical resource for people in crisis, certainly since its launch. Dr. Haidt, how has it shaped Carillon's approach to Crisis Care with 988 in mind? And again, what role does having that strong strategic response plan really improve outcomes from your perspective?

[B]

Thank you. At a national level, over the last couple of years, SAMHSA has been working to create national standards for crisis systems of care. And today that includes having someone to talk to through a crisis line, someone to respond through development of mobile crisis and somewhere to go. And that would be a safe environment where someone can get support if needed, if circumstances are necessary. What we found is that while those national standards are fantastic, every system at a local level is very nuanced and very different. So I think our intent or our goal is to be able to engage at that local level while understanding the national standards and understand more at a local level how we can engage, create coordinated systems of care and then really ensure that our training, our expertise come to play in terms of providing support.

[A]

Yeah. Dr. Hyde and Dr. Chaudhry, it's so important to shine a light on this. I really appreciate you both for taking the time. I want to turn the floor over to you both. If there's anything else that you'd like to share that we haven't covered with our listeners. Dr. Chaudhry, why don't we start with you?

[C]

Well, again, I do appreciate this opportunity. I think it's so critical that we provide a forum in which to speak about these sometimes very sensitive issues and more broadly, have greater conversations around mental health, around suicide, so that people feel like they can get the help that we need. And with the suicide prevention program, we've really seen some great success in reducing the rates of suicide. And I think more importantly, we've really been able to offer some hope to people that there are alternatives and there is a brighter day ahead. And I think that can be very powerful for people. And it's just work that I'm really proud to do.

[A]

Yeah. And again, I appreciate you so much for being on and talking about this. It's so important. As you mentioned, Dr. Hyde, final thoughts.

[B]

Yeah, I think again, just mentioning 988 and the national suicide support line, I mean, I think it's incredible how much it's grown over the last couple of years. And I think we're seeing increasingly that oftentimes Crisis lines like 988 can be an access point to behavioral health services. And so I think it's just imperative that we continue to support 988 and support the training of our staff.

[A]

Absolutely. Well, again, thank you both for taking the time and sharing your expertise and your insights with us today. And we also want to thank our podcast sponsor, Carillon Behavioral Health. You can tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast page at Becker's Hospital Review.

[C]

Com.