The purpose of this study is to compare two different kinds of follow-up care and their effects on psychiatric service use and psychological well-being.
This randomized, controlled trial of subjects discharged from the psychiatric emergency services to outpatient care recieve traditional hospital-based outpatient clinic referrals (treatment as usual) or appointments for community-based follow-up by a mobile crisis team.
Primary Outcome Measures:
- Subjects randomized to the experimental treatment will demonstrate significantly increased rates of linkage to first outpatient contact as compared with
subjects randomized to control treatment.
Secondary Outcome Measures:
- Subjects randomized to experimental treatment will demonstrate significantly reduced levels of psychiatric symptoms and significantly increased scores of
overall functioning at 3 months after study enrollment,
- and
- will demonstrate significantly higher use of outpatient mental health clinical services, lower use of emergency department contacts, and lower use of
inpatient mental health services versus the control group during the six months after study enrollment.
| Estimated Enrollment: |
120 |
| Study Start Date: |
April 2003 |
There are subgroups of patients who only seek care in emergency settings. An effective strategy to link that group to ambulatory care involves extending contact with psychiatric emergency services beyond the initial hospital-based visit. The "window of opportunity" to promote successful treatment linkage is brief. This is a study of a novel treatment format that seeks to expand the concept of the emergency contact, the study patients method of entering the mental health system of care, and by doing this, enhance retention in prescribed outpatient care. The effects of the intervention on patient symptoms and mental health service use will be examined.
Purpose
