Investigating the association between characteristics of local crisis care systems and service use in an English national survey.

backgroundIn England, a range of mental health crisis care models and approaches to organising crisis care systems have been implemented, but characteristics associated with their effectiveness are poorly understood.

aimsTo (a) develop a typology of catchment area mental health crisis care systems and (b) investigate how crisis care service models and system characteristics relate to psychiatric hospital admissions and detentions.

methodCrisis systems data were obtained from a 2019 English national survey. Latent class analyses were conducted to identify discernible typologies, and mixed-effects negative binomial regression models were fitted to explore associations between crisis care models and admissions and detention rates, obtained from nationally reported data.

resultsNo clear typology of catchment area crisis care systems emerged. Regression models suggested that provision of a crisis telephone service within the local crisis system was associated with a 11.6% lower admissions rate and 15.3% lower detention rate. Provision of a crisis cafe was associated with a 7.8% lower admission rates. The provision of a crisis assessment team separate from the crisis resolution and home treatment service was associated with a 12.8% higher admission rate.

conclusionsThe configuration of crisis care systems varies considerably in England, but we could not derive a typology that convincingly categorised crisis care systems. Our results suggest that a crisis phone line and a crisis cafe may be associated with lower admission rates. However, our findings suggest crisis assessment teams, separate from home treatment teams, may not be associated with reductions in admission and detentions.