Crisis Emergencies for Individuals With Severe, Persistent Mental Illnesses: A Situation-Specific Theory

This article presents an extension of Ball's midrange theory of crisis for individuals with severe, persistent mental illnesses (SPMI) by placing Balls' model in the specific situation of the individual seeking help in an emergency setting, creating the situation-specific theory of crisis emergencies for individuals with SPMI. There is a large and growing presence of clients with SPMI in crisis engaging nurses in emergency departments. Through application of an integrative approach, a situation-specific theory for nurses in emergency departments to distinguish between a need for mental health crisis intervention and mental health emergency intervention has been developed, with implications for nursing practice, policy, and research.