Service innovations: an Australian approach to community care – the Northern Crisis Assessment and Treatment Team

The recent White paper, Modernising Mental Health Services, recommended the provision of home treatment teams for acute mental illness (Department of Health, 1998). Such services are not widespread in the UK and have been the subject of recent debate (Smyth et al, 2000). In Australia, multi-disciplinary teams providing 24–hour community assessment and treatment of psychiatric emergencies have been in place now for over a decade, and form the cornerstone of the public mental health service.