Troubled teens in a mental health crisis can be helped by a community-based support program The program refers teens to at-home counseling and 24/7 crisis support It reduced their risk of returning to an ER with another mental health crisis THURSDAY, Dec. 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Teenagers who land in an ER with a mental health crisis can be effectively helped by a community-based program. New research shows that troubled teens placed in such a program were significantly less likely to return to the ER or require inpatient psychiatric care due to a follow-up crisis.
The program did not reduce risk of a subsequent suicide attempt, but did reduce the risk of being hospitalized for a suicide attempt. The study looked at the effectiveness of the Crisis and Transition Services (CATS) program created by the Oregon Health Authority. “Although CATS may not reduce suicide attempts overall, youths in this program were able to return home rather than be hospitalized in an [inpatient] unit, thereby decreasing the burden placed on EDs to board youths and allowing youths to stay in the community,” wrote the research team led by , an associate professor of psychiatry with Oregon Science and Health University.
For the study, researchers tracked more than 500 kids ages 11 to 17 referred to CATS between 2018 and 2020. Health officials set up the program to respond to the needs of rural teens who don’t have access to the sort of psychiatric programs available in urban areas, according.
