Frontline care gets big boost

PARAMEDICS have a new tool in their arsenal with trained mental health staff now a part of ambulance response teams in cases for people suffering mental health crisis.

The Mental Health Co-responder Program will now operate in Townsville, the Sunshine Coast and Cairns after a “successful” pilot trial.

QAS program director Sandra Garner said the initiative, which pairs paramedics with a senior mental health clinician for call-outs to people in a mental health crisis, would provide timely and appropriate health responses to patients.

“We are able to provide the same type of assessment that happens in an emergency department but, to people who are in their own home,” she said.

“This means better healthcare outcomes for Queenslanders and a reduction in emergency department presentations, which has flow on effects for the entire health system.”

Mental health responses make up about 13 per cent of triple-0 calls to the Queensland Ambulance Service and that number is growing.

Last year the QAS responded to more than 60,000 people experiencing a mental health crisis – a 23 per cent increase from the year before.

Ms Garner said the co-responder program was trialled for 12 months in 2019 and found first responders played a key role in mental health issues including suicides.

“We are seeing a lot of people in distress, a lot of suicide distress,” she said.

“We know that sometimes people in mental health distress are best serviced in their own home.

“The sooner we can get appropriate interventions … the more swift their recovery is.”

During the pilot program across southeast Queensland, Ms Garner said of the more 1500 patients about 65 per cent were able to stay at home due to the co-response model.