1st Edition

Home Treatment for Acute Mental Disorders An Alternative to Hospitalization

By David S. Heath Copyright 2004
    328 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In the U.S., when a patient is in need of rigorous psychiatric care, the first step is hospitalization. However, elsewhere in the world, psychiatric home treatment is proposed as an alternative. Model programs in Canada and the United Kingdom are publicly administered by community health agencies or teaching hospitals. Home Treatment  for Acute Mental Disorders provides a review of the literature on home care and describes working programs around the world. This timely volume reviews treatment plans for different disorders with case illustrations, explains the administration of a PHC program and offers guidelines to case workers. It will be of interest to psychiatrists and policy makers working on the issue of patient hospitalization.

    Part 1: Review of Research and Discussion of Mental Health Systems. Introduction. Review of Research on Mobile Crisis Home Treatment. Why Mobile Crisis Home Treatment; How Does it Fit in with Mental Health Systems? Part 2: Examples of Mobile Crisis Home Treatment Services: How to Set Up and Operate a Mobile Crisis Home Treatment Service. Mobile Crisis Home Treatment Services in Three Countries: Seven Site Visits. Key Elements and Principles of Mobile Crisis Home Treatment. How to Set Up and Operate a Mobile Crisis Home Treatment Service. Daily Program Operations. Mobile Crisis Home Treatment of Specific Mental Disorders, part 1. Mobile Crisis Home Treatment of Specific Mental Disorders, part 2.

    Biography

    David S. Heath, MB, ChB, FRCPC, is Psychiatric Consultant to the Hazelglen Outreach Mental Health Service (Cambridge site), a mobile crisis home treatment service of Grand River Hospital, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He is also a psychiatrist at the Homewood Health Centre in Guelph, Ontario.

    "...David S. Heath succeeds in delivering a comprehensive review of Mobile Crisis Home Treatment (MCHT), an efficacious community psychiatric treatment model, developed as an alternative to in-patient hospital care. This is the first book to provide a step-by-step approach to implementing the MCHT program in the community. As such, this text is an excellent resource for anyone currently examining alternative treatments for acute psychiatric patients in the community. By providing sufficient, understandable information and examples, practitioners, mental health policy makers and planners, and students can learn about this program, examine its critical elements, and observe how it has been applied in a number of "real world" settings. Having been employed in both crisis work and on ACT teams, and having set up similar programs, I felt that this book rang true. It is an accurate depiction of what it takes to implement and sustain a new innovative program in an existing mental health system.  For all these reasons, this book is a must read for anyone interested in implementing Mobile Crisis Home Treatment."

    -Kraig J. Knudsen, in Community Mental Health Journal