Investigating continuity of care in a mental health crisis resolution team service

Abstract

This article details an audit that was undertaken to explore the extent to which a crisis resolution team (CRT) service in Leicestershire, England, provided continuity of care to service users. Data were collected from a sample of 100 service users over a period of 12 months, from January 2019 to December 2019. The audit found that 91% (n=91) of service users had a care plan and 87% (n=87) had been given a copy. All service users were allocated a key worker from the team covering their locality, but only 55% (n=55) of service users were seen at least once by their key worker during an episode of CRT care. The mean number of healthcare professionals seen by service users was seven, while the mean number of different CRT locality teams involved in visiting service users was three. Only 6% (n=6) of service users experienced the minimum of one team involved in their episode of care.These findings indicate that the CRT service’s standard operating procedure requires further development to incorporate the main elements of continuity of care. A practice development project is proposed to engage staff in this and implementing service improvements.