Hospital Emergency Care

Mental health crisis/emergency response must provide a broad range of services to address the widely varying manifestations of acute mental illness. There are five essential components to the crisis response/emergency service: telephone crisis lines, mobile crisis outreach, walk-in crisis stabilization services, crisis residential (non-hospital) services, and hospital-based psychiatric emergency services. A medical team comprised of physicians, physician assistants, adult nurse practitioners, registered nurses, medical assistants and referral specialists is needed. More and more community-based organizations are pioneering new ways of offering their clients access to primary care.