Crisis Support Protocol
Last updated: October 30, 2026
Ella is the automated assistant inside Elderella. Family caregivers talk to her about the person they care for, often when they are worn out or grieving. This page explains what Ella does when someone tells her about thoughts of suicide, self-harm or an eating disorder, either their own or someone else's. It is the protocol Washington law (ESHB 2225, section 5) asks us to publish, and we follow it for everyone who uses Elderella.
Ella is not a crisis service.
Every message Ella answers goes through an automated check before her reply is finished. The check looks at what the writer means, not at particular words. It looks for signs that the writer, or someone they describe, is thinking about suicide, wants to die, is hurting or planning to hurt themselves, or is starving, purging or bingeing in a way that puts them at risk.
This covers your own chat with Ella, her answers in a care team chat, and talking an item through with her in the care map. The check is built to tell those signs apart from everyday speech, such as "this paperwork is killing me", and from ordinary care questions, such as the most of a medication someone can safely take, or planning for hospice.
When the check finds a sign of risk, Ella's reply ends with a crisis referral: the crisis lines in section 1. The referral is fixed text that we wrote and reviewed. Ella does not compose it, so it is the same each time. It appears every time the check finds a sign of risk, not only the first time.
In a care team chat, the referral appears with Ella's answer in that chat, where the message was written.
We count each crisis referral Ella gives. The count records only the date and where it was given. It does not record who received it or what they wrote.
We publish the count for each calendar year in January of the next year. The count for 2026 will appear here in January 2027.
Elderella Inc.
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Email: privacy@elderella.com