How to use the Resource Pack

Our shared aim

Welcome to the CORE Resource Pack. We have chosen to describe this as a "resource pack" to support our collaboration towards the shared objective of improved crisis resolution team (CRT) effectiveness. We hope you will see it as a resource for you to fulfil your ambitions to be the service you most want to be.

Although we have described it as a CRT resource pack we anticipate that other key local services (e.g. staff from acute care, inpatient wards, or community services working with vulnerable people) will also be involved as they are crucial to the success of the teams' performance.

Building on a successful model

CRTs are a successful service model. Research has demonstrated that they can be effective in reducing admissions to hospital and improve service users' experience of acute care. The introduction of CRTs to UK mental health services has been a notable success story: in little more than a decade, CRTs have become an established and valued part of the acute care systems across the country.

The resource pack seeks to build on this success. It is not seeking to introduce a radical new service model. It is seeking to consolidate the existing CRT service model and help teams deliver top quality CRT care consistently. Most of the practical resources within the resource pack are drawn from and are currently used in UK CRT services. We have sought to collect examples of best practice together for use by all CRT teams.

An overview of the resource pack

The pack covers many aspects of CRT service provision. Not all of it will be relevant for your team right now. You will be supported in making the best use of it through the process described in this section. We hope that CRT managers, staff, users and carers will explore those aspects of the resource pack that are most relevant to the areas in which you want to improve based on a clear sense of your service improvement priorities.

The content of this section will be most relevant to CRT managers, service planners and facilitators who will be leading the CRT improvement process. It provides information on how to bring about improvement at a team level.

The Resources section will be most relevant to those actually leading the design and implementation of change (including CRT clinicians as well as managers, users and carers). This section provides practical tips and resources to support delivery of excellent CRT care. The resources are organised to reflect the 39 items in the CORE CRT fidelity measure.