When youth are experiencing a mental health crisis or an agitated state, calming them is critical. How best to do that is as unique as the youth themselves.

In those moments what if we knew what individual youth say are strategies to calm them and then followed those? That is what OCMH’s Mental Health Crisis Card does. Youth list three calming strategies that work for them on the front of the card. Then, when a young person is feeling agitated or experiencing a mental health crisis they can show people around them their card, and those people can follow the calming strategies.

Listening to what youth know will help them when they are struggling is important. When youth are empowered to make their calming strategies known, negative impacts can be reduced or eliminated, and youth will feel safe and understood.

The Mental Health Crisis Card isn’t just for youth, however, growing in use across the state of Wisconsin, more and more services are supporting the use of the card for adults too! Wallet sized and offered in 10 different languages, the resources is highly accessible.

Struggling to determine some calming strategies? This page includes some examples, and the back of the card has a place to list a supportive person, and their phone number, who could be called if necessary.