Mental Health Crisis Intervention and Support for Patients
CONTACT HOURS: 5
Copyright © 2020 Wild Iris Medical Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
LEARNING OUTCOME AND OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, you will have increased your knowledge of appropriate responses and care for persons experiencing a mental health crisis, ranging from short-term intervention to emergency management of a life-threatening situation. Specific learning objectives to address potential knowledge gaps include:
- Distinguish between a mental health “crisis” and “emergency.”
- Describe the types, phases, and balancing factors of a mental health crisis.
- Recognize signs, symptoms, and contributing factors of a mental health crisis.
- Summarize the goals and methods involved in the mental health crisis intervention process.
- Explain the considerations involved in mental health triage.
- List effective communication techniques for use in crisis intervention.
- Discuss steps involved in mental health emergency management.
- Outline the assessment process of the patient experiencing a mental health emergency.
- Describe the appropriate care for patients experiencing substance use or a mental illness.
- Identify ethical and legal concerns related to the care of patients experiencing a mental health crisis or emergency.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- What Is a Mental Health Crisis?
- Recognizing a Mental Health Crisis
- Mental Health Crisis Intervention Process
- Mental Health Emergency Behavior Management
- Assessing the Patient Experiencing a Mental Health Emergency
- Ethical and Legal Issues
- Conclusion
- Resources
- References
INTRODUCTION
Everyone experiences personal crises. Crises are acute, time-limited events experienced as overwhelming emotional reactions to one’s perception of an event. Crises are experienced by people of all ages, cultures, and socioeconomic conditions and may or may not be related to a specific mental disorder.
A crisis can be defined as an unstable situation with an uncertain outcome in which an individual’s coping capacity is temporarily overwhelmed. Such crises may be generated by external events, intrinsic processes, or a combination of both. A crisis for one person may not be for another, and what is now a crisis may not have been a crisis before or would not be a crisis in a different setting. Many crises will resolve favorably without intervention. Others, however, may require professional crisis management (Novalis et al., 2020).
Most often clinicians encounter an individual in crisis in emergency departments and on crisis hotlines. However, these individuals may also be encountered in the community as well as in inpatient units, rehabilitation facilities, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home health settings.
Healthcare providers may feel a lack of educational preparation, confidence, and experience to provide appropriate assessment and intervention for the person in crisis. Too often they respond as if a mental health crisis and danger to self or others are one and the same.
This narrow focus on dangerousness, however, is not a valid approach to addressing a mental health crisis. To identify crises accurately requires a much more nuanced understanding and a perspective that looks beyond whether the person is a danger or that immediate psychiatric hospitalization is indicated. Because only a portion of real-life crises may actually result in serious harm to self or others, a response that is activated only when physical safety becomes an issue is often too little, too late, or no help at all in addressing the root of the crisis.
It is important to recognize that addressing problems before physical safety becomes an issue is an important step in the successful management of patients experiencing a mental health crisis before it becomes a mental health emergency, which can be life-threatening. Most often mental health emergencies involve the threat of suicide or acting on a suicide threat. Other emergencies may involve a threat of harm to another individual (Shiva, 2017).