Electronic Letters to:

PAPERS:
SONIA JOHNSON, FIONA NOLAN, JOHN HOULT, IAN R. WHITE, PAUL BEBBINGTON, ANDREW SANDOR, NIGEL McKENZIE, SEJAL N. PATEL, and STEPHEN PILLING
Outcomes of crises before and after introduction of a crisis resolution team
The British Journal of Psychiatry 2005; 187: 68-75 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
*eLetters: Submit a response to this article

Electronic letters published:

[Read eLetter] Crisis Intervention and Staff Satisfaction
Krishma Jethwa, Nuwan Galappathie   (15 July 2005)

Crisis Intervention and Staff Satisfaction 15 July 2005
Top
Krishma Jethwa,
Senior House Officer
Newton Lodge, Yorkshire Centre for Forensic Psychiatry,
Nuwan Galappathie

Send letter to journal:
Re: Crisis Intervention and Staff Satisfaction

dr.k.jethwa{at}doctors.org.uk Krishma Jethwa, et al.

The recent article ‘Outcome of crises before and after introduction of a crisis resolution team’ by Johnson (2005) provides short term support for the implementation of crisis resolution services. It highlights patient satisfaction and a reduction in hospital admission rates. This study like many others fails to evaluate issues relating to staff satisfaction.

Crisis teams often undertake a gate keeping role regarding hospital admissions. This has the potential to lead to conflict, especially when there is disagreement, with the community mental health team or on call psychiatrist. The Cochrane review ‘Crisis intervention for people with severe mental illnesses’ (Joy, 2004) also fails to uncover any data regarding staff satisfaction.

Given that working within psychiatry is already associated with significant stress, it would be useful to evaluate what effects crisis teams have upon measures such as staff morale, recruitment, retention and burnout. In the meantime whilst the initial indicators suggest that crisis teams are effective and favoured by patients. We should realize that it is only by effective communication and good team working skills that such services will be made attractive to staff in the long term.

References:

Johnson, S., Hoult, J., White, I., et al (2005) Outcome of crisis before and after introduction of a crisis resolution team. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 187 , 68-75.

Joy, C., Adams, C., Rice, K., (2004) Crisis intervention for people with severe mental illness (Review). The Cochrane Database of Systematic Review, Issue 4. Art. No.:CD001087.pub2. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001087.pub2.