Crisis resolution: A service response to mental distress

Morton, JW

Abstract

Crisis Resolution Teams (CRTs) along with other specialist mental health teams (Early Intervention and Assertive Outreach) have emerged as a definite service direction in secondary mental health services and are firmly
embedded in mental health policy. This article draws on quantitative data which was collected during a small research study involving 27 interviews with staff in a CRT in a mental health trust in the North West of England.
The borough which the CRT serves is largely urban. In terms of ethnicity, the BME (black, minority and ethnic) population makes up approximately 10 per cent of the majority white population according to the operational
guidelines for this CRT. The article focuses on the nature of crisis in people presenting to the CRT, the range of interventions which individuals received in the service and the element of their intervention that staff viewed as
the most significant. The CRT dealt with a constituency of people presenting with wide-ranging difficulties experiencing a mental health crisis but who could not be described as having a ‘severe’ mental illness. The
response to individuals experiencing distress privileged medical-type interventions above social-type interventions. The study questions the validity of targeting those people experiencing severe mental illnesses for CRT services, the appropriateness of medically influenced interventions for
individuals in crisis and the relevance of professional function and skill mix in these teams.

Citation

Morton, J. (2010). Crisis resolution: A service response to mental distress. Practice, 21(3), 143-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/09503150902807599

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Dec 23, 2010
• Journal: Practice : Social Work in Action
• Print ISSN: 0950-3153
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 143-158
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09503150902807599
• Keywords: crisis resolution; mental health; social care
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09503150902807599