Background
Purpose
The aim of this report is to offer an analysis of crisis support in England, showcasing of best practice examples and drawing attention to areas for improvement, ultimately offering a series of recommendations for the provision of improved crisis services across England and beyond.
Method
The approach taken in this report is using ‘transformational informatics’. This involves:
- Using data as the driving force behind improvements in services and systems, not what ‘feels right’.
- Drawing intelligence from multiple reliable and relevant sources to best understand a problem.
- Using data in a timely way.
- The gap between data collection and action is small; the data gathered is used iteratively to inform ‘what next’.
- Qualitative information on good practice is one of the best forms of intelligence.
- Data should never be for data’s sake - what is collected has value, and it should be used.
- Always be looking for what works and sharing this with others.
Contents
The contents of this report include:
- What is a mental health crisis and the factors that influence crisis?
- National policies
- Data reporting in England
- Crisis service models and types
- Examples of good practice
- Digital tools
- Conclusion and recommendations
Key findings
- High levels of variation in the level and provision of all forms of crisis services with services developing opportunistically as opposed to in response to demand.
- Rising demand on acute emergency department services as a result of Covid-19.
- Little universal agreement about care plans and best practice crisis advance plan.
- Limited provision of routine data reports to understand the social, clinical, and safeguarding needs of the people who seek crisis care.
- Pathways into and through crisis services have a number of pinch points which delay access to effective and efficient treatment for patients and add to staff burden.
- Idiosyncratic and sometimes absent training in crisis care.
- Limited examples of systematic evaluation of outcome.
- Challenges to safe regulatory oversights of the pathways of care in traditional organisation-based models, hence some very concerning legal compliance challenge.
- High-energy committed crisis care staff and exciting improvement methods that map pathways and involve digital decision support tools and other improvement tools.
Authors
Zero Suicide Alliance
