Field Visit Contact Rate by Mobile Crisis Teams as a Crisis System Performance Metric

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Services Research
• Public Health
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Mobile crisis teams provide essential support to individuals experiencing distress.
• Understanding factors influencing successful client contact is vital for service optimization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate associations between mobile crisis team field visit contact rates and client/referral source characteristics.
• To identify predictors of successful client evaluations during mobile crisis interventions.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective observational study of an urban mobile crisis program.
• Analysis of 2,581 call logs to determine field visit outcomes.
• Logistic regression to examine associations with client demographics and referral source.

Main Results:

• Contact was achieved in 77% of adult and 97% of child field visits.
• Field visit contact rates varied significantly by client age.
• Unsuccessful visits were more probable for referrals from institutional settings compared to individual referrals.

Conclusions:

• Nearly one-quarter of attempted adult field visits by mobile crisis teams were unsuccessful, particularly for institutional referrals.
• Field visit contact rate emerges as a critical performance metric for mobile crisis services as they expand.