Crisis care, where support is provided during a crisis for service users (either in their home or a community setting) was found by this review to provide a package of support that was worthwhile, acceptable and less expensive.
Read the full summary here: http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD001087/crisis-intervention-for-people-with-severe-mental-illnesses
From a service user perspective (SUPER), it is vital that psychiatrists and community mental health teams explain the need for crisis care, so that service users know they will be supported in a non- intrusive and flexible way.
Evening, weekend, out of hours and crisis telephone services have become increasingly common and promoted, making crisis care in the home better, more flexible and therefore more personalised to the needs of service users.
Attrition rates (service users who opt out or stop their crisis care) also need to be focused on to evaluate different packages or types of crisis care, their effectiveness, what packages of crisis care work best for service users, their families, carers and community mental health teams and begin to ask why some service users drop out from this sort of care.
There is also the issue that crisis care can place more burden, stress, workload and burnout on community mental health teams, which is particularly a challenge at a time when health and social care services are facing budget cuts and already being overstretched.
Benjamin Gray,
Service User and Service User Expert,
Rethink Mental Illness.
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