19th November 2024
A pilot project aimed at reducing the number of people in mental health crisis being admitted to Emergency Departments, (ED) has been hailed as a success.
Funded by the Public Health Agency, 12 mental health practitioners from the South Eastern Trust work with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) in its control room in Belfast on a Friday and Saturday from 7pm-3am and on a Sunday from 3pm-11pm.
Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Anne Marie Scott explained, “I work in the Ulster Hospital’s ED and I see quite a lot of patients with mental health problems that come up to ED which is such a busy place. We want to help before it gets to that stage.
“We manage calls with people presenting with a mental health crisis, so these are people who are highly distressed, expressed high emotion, suicidal or have carried out an episode of self harm. So what we try to do is talk to them over the phone using many techniques to de-escalate the situation. We try and put a plan in place that they are happy with and safe with and also get families on board, just to try and stop them from needing to go to the ED.”
Consultant Paramedic in NIAS, Karl Bloomer detailed how the joint pilot project has so far provided three main benefits. “Firstly mental health patients are getting tailored care from a mental health expert and secondly NIAS are benefitting because our ambulances are tailored and targeted to those who need an emergency ambulance response, with our mental health practitioners managing those within the room who do not need an ambulance response.
“Thirdly, which is probably a benefit we did not realise, is our control room colleagues also get support from the mental health practitioners when they have a difficult mental health presenting call. They can lend their expertise to reassure, encourage and educate our staff, so that is a benefit we did not anticipate initially.”
The Project Lead in the South Eastern Trust, Stephanie Patten explained how well the pilot with NIAS is operating.
“The results so far are fantastic. Since the beginning of April until September there were 190 mental health calls and we have de-escalated 40% of these.
“With the rollout of encompass, we are now able to access Belfast Trust service users on the system, so we are also able to help de-escalate some of them.
“NIAS has told us the difference it has made to their response times, to other people in physical emergencies, is really beneficial to them.
Mary Emerson, Allied Health Professions Consultant at the PHA, said: “It is important that people experiencing poor mental health get the support they need, when they need it, especially at a time of crisis. The learning from this pilot will be taken into consideration during the implementation of the Northern Ireland Mental Health Strategy 2021-31, and in particular the creation of a regional Mental Health Crisis Service that is fully integrated with mental health services and provides help and support for people in mental health or suicidal crisis. SPPG and PHA are currently working with key stakeholders on the development of this.”