This is the third in the series of reports from England’s National Audit Office, and it tackles an issue that is of vital importance to the functioning of intensive home treatment teams. For these teams to reduce admissions and to be cost effective they need to target the ” sweet spot” or the ” Goldilocks” range of acuity. If one takes the range of acuity of patients in a mental health crisis who are destined for hospitalization, intensive home treatment can handle the bottom 40-45% of that range. Acuity, in this sense is a combination of risk, symptom severity, functional impairment, degree of cooperation and social support. Accepting patients below this is a waste of resources; dealing with patients beyond this range means that home treatment is less likely to be successful . The most successful teams net as many of the patients in this range of acuity as they can , hence the importance given to gatekeeping beds in England. This project examines the gatekeeping role and other related issues, by identifying 25 sites across England that represent a cross section of location, structure and current practice. They audited the 20 most recent hospital admissions at each site , interviewing the CRHT manager and Ward manager separately about each admission. They also audited the 20 most recent referrals to the CRHT team, interviewing the manager about the source, appropriateness and outcomes of each referral.
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Recent News
- 25. A 2022 Swiss quasi-experimental study based on existing groups – a natural experiment based on geography , to allocate patients to IHT and hospital treatment according to the place of residence ent
- 24 Dutch randomised controlled trial 2022
- 19. Surely, the time has come for psychiatric hospitalization at home. What’s holding us back ?
- 18. Can you treat mentally ill homeless persons in an Intensive Home Treatment Service ?
- 17. My article on Intensive Home Treatment on the Mad in America webzine
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