Childrens Mental Health: The History & Outcomes of a Mobile Crisis Service

Emergency Mobile Crisis Services within the United States are designed to assess and treat people in a crisis within their typical community setting. Mobile Crisis Services have the added therapeutic and humanitarian advantages of reducing the trauma associated with unnecessary hospitalizations by reaching people earlier in and preventing further decompensation. Despite the benefits of EMPS programs, very little literature, seems to pertain to children and adolescent emergency mobile services. This book examined a set of demographic and mental health variables among a group of EMPS clients in order to determine which variables are associated with various treatment outcomes. This EMPS program has managed successfully to stabilize the care of nearly 70% of the clients seen in 2003, indicating these children and adolescents did not need to be hospitalized or seen in a local Emergency Department, thus reducing some of the potential congestion, trauma, and financial burden on the system. Variables that were related to a higher risk of poorer outcomes included having a history of substance abuse, being diagnosed with an externalizing Axis I diagnosis, and being young (age 5-12).