Residential Crisis Units. Are We Missing Out on a Good Idea?

Abstract

Residential Crisis Units (RCU) are non-hospital-based facilities that provide mental health crisis intervention. This paper reviews the RCU literature base and finds good evidence of the ability of RCUs to function as alternatives to hospitalization for many consumers, with equivalent effectiveness and for significantly less cost. Despite this promising research, the RCU model has not been widely adopted. Using two crisis units as case examples as well as key informant interviews, this paper explores factors affecting the lack of dissemination and potential barriers to the growth of the RCU model.

Residential alternatives to acute psychiatric hospital admission: systematic review

“…A number of reviews without meta-analyses identify some relevant studies. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] All however are either old, reliant on search strategies too limited to be considered systematic, or narrowly focused on a specific service model. There is no systematic synthesis of the current evidence regarding all types of residential and in-patient alternatives to standard in-patient care.…”