Crisis now: the business case resulting in a transformation of crisis care. The experience of Arizona in the United States

Every day, emergency dispatchers receive thousands of calls for mental health crisis situations. In the majority of cases, it is a Police Officer who is the first contact and often has little option but to take them to Emergency Rooms or jail. Individuals can wait hours or even days for an opportunity to see a mental health professional. Many times, the person is released without receiving appropriate care or a recovery plan. In response to this situation, the National Action Alliance, based in the US, formed a crisis services task force who released “Crisis Now: Transforming Services is Within Our Reach” in 2016. To meet the challenge of changing crisis services proposed in the report, RI International partnered with NASMHPD and created the business case for Crisis Now to define the Crisis Now continuum of care. The difference made by the Crisis Now model led to an six times greater Crisis Clinical Fit to Need (CCFN) than was possible previous. It additionally equated to $37 million in avoided costs/losses for the hospital Emergency Departments, reduction in the potential state inpatient spending of $260 million, and saved the equivalent of 37 FTE Police Officers (calculated by Arizona data, 2017).