Emotion in crisis: primary and secondary mental health contexts

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between emotion and the experience of a mental health crisis, in particular how this relationship is understood in crisis resolution services and formal mental health (primary and secondary) services more broadly. The paper presents some findings from a small scale study of a Crisis Resolution/Home Treatment Team (CRT/HT) in the North West of England. The specific findings discussed relate to: (i) the nature of the crises people presented with; (ii) diagnostic category; and (iii) staff perceptions of what they felt had most helped individuals. The analysis of emotion is developed from these findings in this crisis service where practitioners seemed to implicitly understand crisis and emotion relationships even though these were seldom articulated or acknowledged in the practices and procedures intended to assist people in crisis. The paper goes on to develop an analysis of these findings in the context of current service provision and offers a conceptual exploration of the limitations which may be found in the acknowledgement of the relationships between emotion and crisis. The paper suggests that emotional context for an individual is considered differently depending on which parts of the formal mental health services are accessed.

Keywords:

• crisis
• emotion
• mental health services