In April 2016 one of the acute wards of the regional public psychiatric hospital – Cantonal Psychiatric Clinic ( CPC) was shut down, and the staff of the ward was trained to build an IHT team . The team was available 24/7 ( on call 10.30 pm to 7 am), formed of three psychiatrists ( one full -time, one part -time , and one part -time on call ). Plus ten mental health nurses, a part -time psychologist, a part-time social worker and a team manager
All patients recruited living in the northern area of the Canton were treated with IHT and included in the intervention group, those from the southern area received care-as-usual ( ie hospitalization )and were included in the control group
Between March 2017 and April 2019 321 patients were enrolled -192 hospitalized and 129 in IHT. The psychiatric symptoms largely improved at discharge without differences between the intervention and control groups . The treatment was significantly longer in the IHT group ( median length 36 days against 27 in control group) . Time did lower over time to 29 days in 2020 in the IHT group suggesting the difference in length may have been due to lack of experience in the new clinical setting
The study confirmed the effectiveness of IHT as a substitute of hospitalization for patients suffering from acute psychiatric crises