A service evaluation of a community-based mental health crisis house in inner city Liverpool.

Purpose - The search for alternatives to inpatient mental health care in the UK and further a field has been going on over the last few decades of the previous century. Amongst the range of alternatives that have been developed are community-based mental health crisis houses that seek to work with people, who may otherwise have been admitted to hospital. Amethyst House is a four-bed mental health crisis house based in inner city Liverpool and works solely with the local Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team (CRHTT) to work with people who require support that could not be delivered at home. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of one element of a service evaluation: the effectiveness of the service in relation to the mental health needs of people admitted.Design/methodology/approach - The paper describes the service model, which integrates the crisis house and the CRHTT, with the latter acting as gatekeepers to the service.Findings - Findings showed improvements in mental health symptomatology and disabilities associated with the crisis between admission and discharge from the service.Originality/value - The paper describes the profile of the people who used the service over a six-month period in 2009, their care pathways through the service and their clinical outcomes between admission and discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]