Crisis care is most effective and cost-efficient when clients continue to participate in healthcare services after the crisis has been resolved. Clients who are linked with healthcare providers in the community are better able to maintain their health and learn the skills needed to avoid future crises. Those who don’t get services after a crisis are likely to repeat patterns that lead to situations requiring crisis and emergency care in the future.

This study compared the linkage of 1,187 clients who participated in crisis services from the MCT from July of 1996 through June of 1997, with a matched group of 1,187 clients who participated in crisis services from a psychiatric emergency room from July of 1994 through June of 1995, before full implementation of the MCT.

Dyches, H., Biegel, D.E., Johnsen, J.A., Guo, S., & Min, M.O. (2002). The impact of mobile crisis services on the use of community-based mental health services. Research on Social Work Practice, 12 (6), 731-751.

Data showed that clients served by MCT were 17% more likely to participate in follow-up services. MCT clients who were new to the community mental health system were 48% more likely to participate in follow-up services. In their discussion, the authors of the study discuss their findings:

"We believe that the main reason the community-based mobile crisis project resulted in a higher rate of postcrisis community-based mental health services was that there was a conscious and systematic effort to promote and facilitate linkage with community agencies for ongoing services" (p. 748).