Acute mental health crisis services are critical to service users and their allies, and they occupy a significant portion of mental health resources in many countries. However, acute care was frequently unpopular and sometimes forceful, and information on which models are optimal for patient experience and results is surprisingly scarce, owing in part to difficulties in conducting studies with patients in crisis. Evidence on best practices for early evaluation and immediate management is notably limited. However, several creative models, including prolonged assessment, brief treatments, and diverse sites and techniques for giving assistance, might be beneficial. For example, acute wards were important in the intense treatment period after a crisis, but new techniques for decreasing coercion, treating trauma, diversifying therapies and the inpatient staff, and making decision-making and care collaborative must be created, assessed, and implemented.
Intensive home treatment programs, acute day units, and community crisis services offered evidence that they can keep certain service users out of the hospital: a better knowledge of how to apply them in various circumstances and what works best for which service users would be beneficial. Approaches to crisis management in the volunteer sector were more flexible and informal: such services could supplement and provide useful learning for statutory sector services, particularly for underserved or disengaged communities.
Such approaches frequently engage professionals who have personal experience with mental health emergencies and key potential roles in enhancing acute care quality across sectors. Large disparities occurred in many low- and middle-income nations, exacerbated by a lack of access to high-quality mental health treatment. Responses must build on current community responses and contextually appropriate evidence. In low-resource situations, the requirement of venturing outside formal systems may lead to broader learning through locally ingrained techniques.
Reference:onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wps.20962
