“We are different people”: A narrative analysis of carers’ experiences with mental health crisis and support from crisis resolution teams

ABSTRACT

Crisis resolution teams (CRTs) deliver acute mental health care in the community. This care implies collaboration with carers. The article explores experiences of mental health crisis from the carer’s perspective and what carers experience as helpful and/or unhelpful help from CRTs. In-depth interviews with carers are analyzed using a narrative approach. The configuration of data elements into coherent stories reveals that thematically similar experiences also have a highly personal imprint. Understanding a carer’s individual experiences and needs in a contextual, storied manner can reveal information that is crucial to the collaboration of help that is perceived as helpful within a home-based approach to a mental health crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Carer experiences
• crisis resolution team
• mental health
• mental health crisis
• narrative
• narrative approach

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the participants for generously sharing their experiences. We also thank the members of the competence group for their valuable and inspiring input and reflections.