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The multidisciplinary approach to mental health crisis management: an Australian example
Author(s) -
WEBSTER S.,
HARRISON L.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1365-2850
pISSN - 1351-0126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2850.2004.00647.x
Subject(s) - mental health , multidisciplinary approach , audit , referral , emergency department , multidisciplinary team , medical emergency , medicine , nursing , identification (biology) , task (project management) , psychiatry , business , management , economics , social science , botany , accounting , sociology , biology
Changes within the Australian health care system have led many people with mental health disorders to use emergency departments as the point of access to mental health services. Staff in emergency departments are not necessarily equipped to assess the needs of such clients. This paper briefly describes the development of a multidisciplinary mental health liaison team, within the emergency department of one hospital in Sydney, which was designed to assist both staff and clients. Available evidence suggests the implementation of the team has been a success, however, more research is required to confirm the effectiveness of this approach. Questions are raised about appropriate referral and follow‐up for some clients. The study also found deficiencies in the method of routine data collection (Emergency Department Identification System), which makes formal auditing of the team and the services it provides a difficult task.