Community-Based Adult Crisis

A Crisis Intervention Program Utilizing a Community Systems Approach to Services

A Crisis Intervention Program is provided to individuals experiencing a crisis or living with a severe mental illness through an adult mobile crisis team based at a community behavioral health agency.  The primary goals of the services are to decrease the risk for hospitalization and increase compliance with outpatient mental health clinic appointments.  The crisis team works collaboratively to ensure patients receive comprehensive care from social workers, registered nurses, social service counselors, and psychiatric aides.    The crisis team’s responsibility is to make initial contact, assess patients’ mental and physical state, evaluate the current situation, identify and define patients’ needs, and assist patients in returning to optimum functioning.   The team has working relationships and receives referrals from local area hospitals, coroners, school administrations, guidance counselors, mental health clinics, primary care doctors, case workers at other agencies, homeless shelters, and other community based programs.  These relationships allow for an expedited referral process and accelerate initial service implementation.  While providing crisis services, team members work with diverse populations implementing chronic disease management and prevention techniques.  During 2013, there were 225 referrals received by the crisis team.  The collective hospitalization rate was 1.8%.  Ninety-eight percent of the satisfaction surveys reported satisfaction with services received and ninety one percent stated that they would use this service again in the future if needed.  This data shows that families in crisis are positively impacted by a highly focused, community-systems approach to effectively coordinate use of resources.