[Crisis intervention in a hospital setting: theoretical and practical aspects]

This paper explores the rationale for establishing a crisis intervention service in a psychiatric hospital setting. After reviewing the pertinent literature, a description will be provided for a crisis service that has been operating since 1987 in the psychiatric department of a general hospital. Data collected over a 6 month period will be presented in order to examine the types of patients referred to the service, the length of stay on the service and the follow-up. Our findings indicate that a large proportion of the patients referred to the service are diagnosed as having major psychiatric disorders and require some form of medical intervention. Nevertheless, a group of patients could be identified who benefit from traditional crisis intervention and who after receiving circumscribed treatment, require no hospital follow-up. The data will be utilized to outline the various roles that a crisis service can play in a psychiatric institution. The discussion will also focus on the structure and functioning of the service and its potential impact on the rest of the system.