Mental health care settings: Role of the nurse

Mental health care is delivered in a variety of settings, and the choice depends on the individual’s condition and level of need. Short-term or acute care settings include inpatient psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric units within general hospitals, and facilities that provide specialized psychiatric emergency services. Other settings include community mental health settings and home-based care. For some individuals with chronic and severe mental health conditions, long-term inpatient care may be necessary when outpatient treatment is not appropriate or safe. As the nurse in a mental health care setting, you’ll provide patient-centered care by ensuring safety and promoting recovery.

Alright, so, each setting for mental health care provides a different level of support and services. Inpatient psychiatric hospitals or hospital-based psychiatric units provide 24-hour care for patients experiencing severe symptoms or mental health emergencies, such as suicidal ideation, psychosis, or incapacitation from an acute behavioral crisis or psychiatric decompensation.

On the other hand, settings that provide psychiatric emergency services initiate rapid stabilization procedures during a mental health crisis and prepare patients for transition to a less intense level of care. Admission to these settings can be voluntary when an individual seeks care and consents to treatment. It can also be involuntary when an individual poses danger to themselves or others or is unable to meet his or her own basic needs due to mental illness.

Next, community mental health settings offer psychiatric therapy, medication management, and support services with the goal of maintaining stability and preventing relapse. These settings can include partial hospitalization programs, sometimes referred to as day treatment, where patients can receive structured care on weekdays and return home in the evenings and weekends; group homes where patients live in a shared therapeutic space with other patients and trained mental health staff; and home care where patients are supported in their own environment and receive community-based nursing or telehealth visits. For those who are not able to be cared for safely in community-based care settings due to the extent of their illness, long-term inpatient care in a setting such as a state-operated psychiatric hospital may be needed.