Helena Roennfeldt

Project Description

Experiences of mental health crisis and how to respond appropriately is currently a major social issue and public health concern. Despite a range of efforts in recent years to develop alternatives for emergency departments, high presentations to ED persist. This research sets out to investigate subjective or first-person experiences of mental health crisis and crisis responses. Crisis responses for the purpose of this study are responses in the Emergency Department (ED), ED alternatives (such as Safe Haven) and crisis phone lines. The research addresses a gap in first-person accounts and understanding of mental health crisis and crisis responses. The main objective of this research is to understand the lived experiences and personal meanings of mental health crises and what kind of help is the most effective in resolving a crisis. In addition, it has looked at the impact of crisis care and developed lived experience recommendations for crisis care.

Supervisors

Associate Professor Bridget Hamilton, Centre for Mental Health Nursing
Dr Nicole Hill, Department of Social Work
Dr Louise Byrne, RMIT University