Supporting mental health related crises: Building the evidence base

Vicky Stergiopoulos

Supporting mental health related crises: Building the evidence base

Vicky Stergiopoulos

University of Toronto, Canada

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

Despite increasing emphasis on diverting care from acute, hospital based services, important knowledge gaps remain on crisis prevention, early intervention, appropriate management and recovery support for individuals presenting with a mental health or addictions related crisis. This presentation will briefly summarize existing literature and present findings from efforts related to improve timely crisis response and management, using mobile crisis interventions teams (MCITs) of police officers and mental health nurses, and case management interventions connecting emergency department (ED) service users to primary care and other community supports. Emerging findings of a mixed methods program evaluation, including comparison of MCIT process data with administrative databases of police-only responders, and qualitative interviews with service users and program and system stakeholders will be discussed. Lessons learned from a mixed methods randomized controlled trial of a brief intervention for frequent ED users will be presented, including barriers to continuity of care and frequent ED user care experiences in the ED. Building on the limited evidence base that exists of what works, when, and for whom can inform, in partnership with service users, our planning for services to improve experiences of care, health outcomes and health service use for individuals experiencing mental health related crises.