Objective: The authors investigated associations between rates of contact with individuals in distress during field visits by mobile crisis teams and client and referral source characteristics.
Methods: In this retrospective observational study of an urban mobile crisis program, call logs (N=2,581) were coded for whether an attempted field visit resulted in a client evaluation. Logistic regression analyses examined potential associations with client age, gender, race-ethnicity, primary language, living situation, insurance, and referral source.
Results: Contact was made with 77% of adults and 97% of children referred to mobile crisis teams. Field visit contact rates differed by age. Unsuccessful visits were more likely when the referral source was from institutional settings than from individuals.
Conclusions: Approximately one-quarter of attempted field visits with adults by an urban mobile crisis team were not completed, particularly among referrals from institutional settings. As mobile crisis services proliferate, field visit contact rate could be a key performance metric for these critical services.
Keywords: Crisis intervention; Crisis response; Mobile crisis; Service delivery systems; Suicide prevention.