[Researching crisis plans in long-term mental health care: more complicated than expected]

BACKGROUND Crisis plans are highly valued because they can help to reduce the number of persons subjected to compulsory treatment in mental health care. The evidence however that crisis plans are effective is scarce, partly due to insufficient implementation by professionals.
AIM: To assess the fidelity, relevance and applicability of crisis plans and to estimate to what extent such plans are appreciated by those working in long-term care.
METHOD: Semi-structured interview with patients and nurses.
RESULTS: The crisis plans were judged to be clearly worded and the fidelity was high, but our findings cannot be considered as representative because the response rate (12/144; 8.3%) of the patients was so low.
CONCLUSION: Despite the accessibility of our study design, patient response rates were very low. This demonstrates that clinical research in long-term clinical health care clinical research can prove to be more complicated than we anticipated. If the research participation rate among these very ill and vulnerable population is commonly so low, it will be extremely difficult for us to provide evidence-based care for these patients.