This chapter is in two parts. The first provides guidance on how to plan and set up a local service, including the information requirements for effective planning; the preparatory steps that need to be taken, including consultation with a range of hospital and community agencies and service users; setting budgets; and the requirements for beginning to deliver a service. The second part explores the reasons why some teams fail to demonstrate their continuing effectiveness and identifies the factors that help a team to achieve success and sustainability in the long term.

Planning and setting up a team

The obvious needs to be stated: whoever sets up a crisis resolution team (CRT) needs to have a clear vision of the overall purpose of the team and what they want it to achieve. A team that will do predominantly crisis resolution/home treatment will have different staffing and organisational requirements from one focusing on carrying out all acute assessments in an area, and from one that has both expectations. This exact remit of the team needs to be decided and made clear from the start.

The most important steps in planning and setting up a CRT are summarised in Box 24.1 and described in more detail in the remainder of this section.

Visit other teams

It is important to ask around to find out what teams are operating in areas with similar characteristics to the planned area – especially teams considered to be operating successfully – and to visit them in order to learn about their methods and their problems.