The nation's first scientific study of its kind shows that
Mobile Crisis Team services led to fewer hospitalizations.

To achieve prompt and safe resolution of a psychiatric crisis in the least-restrictive setting is an important outcome. People learn crisis management skills better at home and in their community than in the hospital. Admission to a hospital disrupts family and social support, and is more costly than outpatient care.

Clients and community leaders often prefer crisis services provided by a mobile community-based team rather than by a hospital-based team. Clients like services in the privacy of their home, in the presence of family supports. Community leaders believe that a mobile team based at a mental health center is less likely to hospitalize a person in crisis, and is better able to help the person resolve a crisis situation through services in the community.

Guo, S., Biegel. D.E., Johnsen, J.A., & Dyches, H. (2001). Assessing the impact of community-based mobile crisis services on preventing hospitalization. Psychiatric Services, 52, 223-228.

The hypothesis that mobile crisis services lead to fewer hospitalizations was tested in a study conducted by the Cuyahoga County Mental Health Research Institute, and Case Western Reserve University. The study was published in Psychiatric Services, the major journal of the American Psychiatric Association. It is the first published, scientific comparison of hospital admissions resulting from mobile community-based, vs. hospital-based, crisis services.

Analysis of the study's data showed that a "consumer in the hospital-based intervention group was 51% more likely to be hospitalized than a consumer in the community-based mobile crisis intervention group" (pp. 225-226). Analyses also demonstrated that community-based mobile crisis intervention services resulted in "more than 500 fewer hospital episodes in 1997 than would have been predicted from the historical trend" (p. 227). Furthermore, treatment in the community did not increase the risk of subsequent hospitalizations.

Psychiatric Services is a journal of the American Psychiatric Association, and its contents are subject to copyright laws. Click here for on-line access to Psychiatric Services.

Copyright ©
Mental Health Services for Homeless Persons, Inc. (MHS)
1744 Payne Avenue; Cleveland, Ohio 44114 U.S.A.
216-623-6555 - TTY/TDD: 216-623-6540

The URL of this page is
http://www.mhs-inc.org/Outcomes-MobileCrisis.asp
It was most recently updated on 4 October 2007.
We welcome your comments.
Please write to Joel[at]mhs-inc.org