As gatekeepers to acute services, crisis resolution and home treatment teams must focus on achieving the earliest possible discharge for the benefit of patients. Nina Lakhani discusses a number of models that can help to ease the decision-making process

Crisis resolution/home treatment (CR/HT) teams first developed in Australia and the USA in the 1980s and are increasingly popular in the UK. These teams offer an alternative service to acute inpatient care, thus providing a treatment choice for people experiencing an acute mental health crisis. The service aims are to reduce the number of hospital admissions and reduce the length of admissions, consequently easing the pressure on inpatient units, while refocusing resources into high quality community services (Department of Health (DH) 2000 and 2001).