Our Mission
Crisis Support Central is dedicated to supporting youth, schools, and communities through crisis and loss. Since 2005, we’ve trained dozens of crisis response teams in the Midwest, assisted in suicide postvention, and served as a first responder in 100+ critical incidents including the aftermath of active shooter and weather-related mass casualty events.
Through our work, we have witnessed the challenges faced by mental health first responders and those they serve when having to rely on paper resources, including but not limited to:
- Time spent compiling, printing, counting, and sorting paper resources before and during response
- Running out of paper resources in locations where printing is not accessible
- Personal costs of printing
- Lack of proper space available at response sites to lay out resources
- Clients not utilizing paper resources when feeling overwhelmed
- An inability for clients to easily search through the resources provided to find the information they need
- Clients misplace resources and have to return to the resource site or lose access to the information
Our Solution:
Crisis Support Central was created so those responsible for psychoeducation have a one-stop location to access and disseminate publicly available resources. Users can utilize a variety of search features to narrow down and select documents that apply to the unique needs of those they are working with, then email or text this personalized selection of documents for the person to access later.
Behind Crisis Support Central
Jim Persinger
Dr. Persinger has 30 years of experience as a school psychologist, professor, and counselor, and 19 years as a prolific crisis interventionist and trainer. He has consulted with dozens of school districts and state agencies and has been a first responder in Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Illinois, and Oklahoma, helping with critical incident stress management, crisis response, and recovery.
He serves as the Clinical Director for District Five (IA, KS, MO, NE, ND, SD, OK) of the National Athletic Trainer’s ATs Care crisis initiative. Jim is a Red Cross Disaster Mental Health regional team member. His work has been recognized with a KASP Lifetime Achievement Award, and the designation of Roe R Cross Distinguished Professor at ESU, where he served as chair of two academic departments and interim Dean of the School of Applied Health Sciences before retiring in 2023.