I am writing to praise Erika for her assistance with a difficult call. I do phone triage for her to help streamline calls as they come in for handling. I received a call towards the end of day from the distraught spouse of an inpatient Veteran. The woman caller was expressing her frustration that her husband was to be transferred to STR. She initially asked for her husband’s social worker by first name (she did not have the last name nor extension). I attempted to find the social worker in CPRS but was unsuccessful. I reached out to Erika for help on Teams while I had the woman on the phone. During my intermittent communication with her “behind the scenes”, the woman was crying and stated several times that she was overwhelmed. She initially was yelling and combative as she was overcome with the situation. She let me know that her husband was very angry, and did not want the transfer. She mentioned how difficult it was for her as she lives a distance from the facility and was trying to handle all of this from a distance. She said more than once that she was unable to sleep, experiencing anxiety and sometimes even chest pain. I did not want to hang up with her until I could hand her off to a live person.

Erika stayed with me on Teams while I spoke to the Veteran’s wife. She was able to find the Veteran’s social worker and reached out to him while I still had the woman on the phone. She relayed the caller’s situation to the social worker and expressed that she really needed to speak to someone immediately. She was able to secure the social worker’s extension, let him know that the caller would be contacting him, and stayed on Teams until I had successfully transferred her over. Before I transferred her, I gave the woman the contact information for her husband’s social worker, his complete name, spelling, his extension, and mine so she could call back with any issues. Erika stayed with me throughout the whole process, which was about 10 minutes of back and forth, she assured me that she understood the caller’s frustration and supported me during the call. She was (and always is) readily available to assist when I have a question, concern, or difficult caller on the line.

Thanks to her intervention, the woman was able to speak directly to her husband’s social worker to address her concerns. Erika has consistently been an invaluable source of information and goes above and beyond to assist and direct on behalf of every Veteran. As a newer staff member, this has been so meaningful and helpful as I establish my role. Even when calls are misdirected to her line (as so often happens), she always steps in to procure a positive result, whether it is a nurse, spouse or Veteran themselves calling for information or to answer a question everything from medication to transportation to setting up services.