Crisis Services

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 According to DHS 34, “Crisis” means: “a situation caused by an individual's apparent mental disorder which results in a high level of stress or anxiety for the individual, persons providing care for the individual or the public which cannot be resolved by the available coping methods of the individual or by the efforts of those providing ordinary care or support for the individual.”

• Pertains to individuals with mental illness, developmental disability, and/or drug dependence
• Sets forth the obligations of the state and counties to provide a range of services which enable individuals to receive treatment in the least restrictive setting
• Focuses on protecting and individual’s rights and liberties and favors voluntary options over involuntary options whenever possible
• Three ways to initiate:
• Emergency Detention, 3-Party Petition, or Treatment Director’s Hold

1. Individual is mentally ill, is developmentally disabled, or is drug dependent AND 

2. Individual is a proper subject for treatment AND

3. Imminent danger is present

• Danger to self by recent attempts or threats of suicide or serious bodily harm
• Danger to others by recent homicidal or other violent behavior or by placing others in reasonable fear or violence by a recent overt act or threat
• Judgment sufficiently impaired by a pattern of recent acts that there is a substantial probability of injury to selfInability to meet basic needs for food, shelter, medical care, or safety such that without prompt and adequate treatment, death, serious disability, physical injury or serious physical disease will imminently ensue
• Fifth Standard: Individual’s psychiatric treatment history, coupled with his/her present mental deterioration due to an incompetent decision to refuse psychotropic medication causes the likelihood that the individual will lose the ability to function independently in the community.