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Vibrant Emotional Health offers suicide and mental health services through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and other resources. We partnered with the organization to develop a data platform and strategy, Salesforce collaboration hub, and microsite to highlight the impact of Vibrant’s lifesaving work.

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Impact

Today, Vibrant can make data-driven decisions that help the organization scale to offer its critical support services to all help-seekers and communicate its impact to the public. 

Industry

Public & social impact

Key Services

Strategy icon
Strategy
Data icon
Data
Artificial intelligence icon
Artificial intelligence
Cloud icon
Cloud
System implementation icon
System implementation
Experience strategy & design icon
Experience strategy & design
Digital product building
Digital product building
Element Icon
Planning & delivery
Organizational change icon
Organizational change
Privacy & security
Privacy & security

Key Technologies/Platforms

  • Salesforce 
  • Fivetran
  • Snowflake 
  • dbt Labs
  • Tableau 
  • Collibra 
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) 


The Vision



We are in a deep crisis among all identities and localities across the country today when it comes to mental health, well-being, and suicide. Vibrant Emotional Health is strategically and uniquely positioned to be an innovator with mental health and suicide prevention.

Johnell Lawrence

Director of Equity & Belonging at Vibrant Emotional Health


Two women enjoy each other's company.

It takes passion and heart to do the work that Vibrant Emotional Health (Vibrant) does, helping people across the US access crisis counseling through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988 Lifeline) and other resources. It also takes technological prowess and an innovative approach—and Vibrant embodies all of the above. When the organization experienced substantial growth following a systems change and rebranding to incorporate 988 Lifeline capabilities, Vibrant needed to modernize its infrastructure and streamline operations, as well as get the word out to more people—from help-seekers to educators—about its mental health services. 

That’s where Slalom came in as a true partner. 

Slalom helped modernize Vibrant’s infrastructure with a new data ecosystem and reporting platform, as well as streamlined access and collaboration for the crisis center administrators through the Vibrant Exchange digital tool. We also teamed up to enable Vibrant to tell its data-driven impact stories to the public.

Vibrant now has a robust CRM system, operationalized modern data management processes, and the ability to provide deeper insights through engaging data visualization to states, centers, and the federal government. In addition, Vibrant is establishing critical data standards and governance processes to enable safe sharing of consistent data across the network. 

Vibrant and Slalom know everyone deserves mental health care and support when and how they need it—delivered with dignity, without stigma, and in a way that works for them. 

That’s why Slalom is honored to be part of the team that’s supporting Vibrant’s mission and vision.



The Solution

Merging data governance with a new data platform and way of working helps Vibrant Emotional Health modernize its systems—and a data-driven microsite showcases the impact. 



Working toward well-being

The US is in a mental health crisis. The numbers don’t lie: one in five adults experiences mental health challenges; and one in five teens will struggle with a mental health condition at some point in their life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

These numbers all represent loved ones, friends, neighbors, parents, and children. 

In 2023 alone, 988 Lifeline counselors responded to nearly six million contacts via phone, text, or messaging. 

Vibrant Emotional Health is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve mental and emotional well-being with dignity and respect. The organization offers call, text, chat, and online services; community programs; advocacy, policy, and education; and business solutions.   

A man listens to music while waiting for the train.

Seeking services through the 988 Lifeline

Vibrant administers the 988 Lifeline, which is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The 988 Lifeline works with a network of more than 200 crisis centers to provide 24/7 service via a toll-free number. It’s available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress within the US and its territories. And it’s free.

In July 2022, what was previously the 10-digit National Suicide Prevention Line transitioned to 988; an easy-to-remember, three-digit phone number for those seeking mental health services.  With this transition came a steady increase in traffic across all modalities, highlighting the need to scale existing infrastructure, technology, and investment in new capabilities to better serve people in distress and crisis.

Grant Riewe, chief technology officer at Vibrant, joined to assist with the change to the 988 Lifeline. He says, “I came in to elevate how we think about managing the infrastructure of a critical network like 988. I knew we needed to focus on how to grow it rapidly, and in a secure, stable fashion—which does require a different set of mechanics.”

A senior man reflects about life.

A data ecosystem modernization

As usage of the 988 Lifeline increased, so did requests for data and information related to the 988 network.  In addressing this, Vibrant sought to modernize its data ecosystem and reporting infrastructure to better equip crisis centers in the Lifeline network, along with the states, territories, and districts they serve, with the insights required for continual improvement.  

Grant adds, “Data drives all of the policy decisions around how we give people access to care—and it will for decades to come.”

Vibrant needed a new data ecosystem that would offer greater transparency to partners and stakeholders, and embrace human-centric, data-informed decision-making, with established standards, policies, and procedures to support it. 

In addition to this foundational work, Grant and his team also knew they needed innovative digital products to support this scale of network growth. 

The challenge was clear: Vibrant needed to drive significant investment for the 988 Lifeline in both technology and process improvement.

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Dreaming up new solutions, together

To meet the challenge, Slalom and Vibrant worked together to develop a scalable data ecosystem, facilitate center engagement, and highlight broader impact through storytelling—all with an eye toward supporting those who need it most. 


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Working together: A dream partnership 

Throughout the exponential growth phase of the 988 Lifeline, the Slalom team helped Vibrant engage with the dream of what was possible. There have been more than 100 Slalom team members engaged on the work, and Grant notes that “each one of them has been committed to the mission that Vibrant is committed to.” 

Grant believes Slalom is supporting Vibrant—and its mental health mission. “This partnership has lasted because the Slalom team members come in eager to learn and are driven by the same mission that we are—I wouldn’t get that from any other partner.”  

“There’s a lot of consulting partners out there,” adds Grant. “I know, because I worked in consulting for 15 years. But to find one who has partnership and passion together? That’s unique.”

The feeling is mutual.

A woman smiles on a sunny day..


The only reason we’ve been able to grow at that pace in the last year is because we’ve got a partner like Slalom who can hear the mission from us and carry that load while we find other people to join the team.

Grant Riewe

Chief Technology Officer



Customer Impact

Vibrant administrators can now collaborate confidently and streamline support center operations, scaling to help more people in the US and increasing the impact—especially to those in underserved communities who need the most help. 

10M
988 Lifeline contacts answered since July 2022
50,000
average interactions per week
200+
crisis center partners supported

vibrant mockup cell phone
vibrant mockup computer

Showcasing Vibrant’s impact to everyone from teachers to policy influencers with an interactive, data-driven storytelling microsite is critical to helping the nonprofit educate everyone in the US on the state of the suicide and mental health crisis. Slalom is proud to do the critical work that enables Vibrant to help more people through the 988 Lifeline.  


What made this possible?


Streamlined operations 

Today, Vibrant administrators reap the benefits of better collaboration and streamlined interactions with crisis centers. Data and reporting are also now available in a self-service capacity, and everyone has a holistic view with visibility into support processes like onboarding and operational center dashboards. 

Looking at data now, administrators can see spike times and events that may cause an influx of greater traffic over time, and when volumes may be lower or higher. This also helps with staffing and planning for the crisis centers. The centers also send data back to the state, Vibrant, and SAMHSA, helping the center administrators understand what they could be doing better and where they can change processes to continue to improve. All this work empowers crisis centers to give help-seekers a smoother experience. 


A focus on serving underserved communities 

For Vibrant, this development allows the organization to invest in additional services for its network, aiming to support individuals and help-seekers from underserved communities who may call with greater frequency and require more care.

For an aging, rural population, this means Vibrant can understand who is calling in and what their unique challenges are, and even launch new services to reach these communities specifically or understand how to reach them to promote availability of the services. 


A solution that scales 

Thanks to the ability to scale its operations with ease, Vibrant can now serve more help-seekers. 

The Vibrant data team has grown exponentially since the 2022 launch.  “The only reason we’ve been able to grow at that pace in the last year is because we’ve got a partner like Slalom who can hear the mission from us and carry that load while we find other people to join the team,” Grant says. 

By increasing awareness of the 988 Lifeline with the external impact website, more help-seekers will feel empowered and encouraged to seek help. 

At the end of the day, it’s clear that both Slalom and Vibrant are aligned to the same mission: to help more people.  

And we’re doing it with technology, our minds—and our hearts. 






Let’s solve together.