Service users' experiences with help and support from crisis resolution teams. A literature review

Abstract

Background: Services for crisis resolution provided by home treatment teams are recent developments in the mental health care scene. There is a lack of systematized reviews in the service users' responses to these services.

Aim: To systematize the existing knowledge regarding the service users' experiences with crisis resolution and home treatment (CR/HT) teams in order to explore ways to develop this form of service further.

Method: A systematic review of the periodical literature and research reports on CR/HT was carried out for the period from January 1995 to January 2009.

Results: A total of 13 papers, one RCT review and two reports were identified, including both qualitative and quantitative studies. Although these studies provided few in-depth details, three major themes as the characteristics of CR/HT teams are extracted as: (a) access and availability, (b) being understood as “normal” human beings, and (c) dealing with crises in an everyday life context.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that the key positive characteristics of help in crisis situations are intrinsically tied to the values and principles undergirding CR/HT services. The commitment to community-based services, the philosophy of partnership, and user-empowerment seem to the base from which these three themes of positive experiences emerged.

Keywords:

• User experiences
• mental health crisis
• home treatment
• crisis resolution
• recovery

Acknowledgements

“Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment in Community Mental Health Service” for which Dr Hesook Suzie Kim is the project director and Drs Marit Borg and Bengt Karlsson are the principal researchers. This project is funded by the Research Council of Norway from 2007 to 2011. We acknowledge the support and assistance provided by various staff members of Buskerud University College in carrying out this research project.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.