Ipads key in hospital’s teen drinking project
NURSES are using ipads to help assess the mental health of heavily drunk and injured young people in Wellington Hospital’s emergency department.
About 100 teenagers have been voluntarily assessed since the pilot programme began a year ago and has potentially saved three lives, a medical professional said.
The programme’s success could see it adopted by other district health boards.
Wellington Hospital emergency medicine specialist Dr Paul Quigley, who is leading the programme, said staff in the hospital’s emergency department regularly treated very vulnerable, drunk youths.
‘‘They are so paralytic from the alcohol that anybody could do anything to them – they could have been assaulted, they could have been raped . . . and some of them could have been at risk of death.’’
The programme was designed to help understand why some drank themselves into oblivion.
‘‘There’s a lot of people out there having fun in town . . . and yet we see 10 of them where there is a problem. Why was it these 10 or so were so bad that they had to come in?’’
Using health software Rataora on ipads, nurses ask patients a set of questions to assess their mental health.
The software provides a risk-based analysis then sends a referral for further treatment or flags a patient as high risk and in need of immediate help.
‘‘Some of the questions just say, ‘have you thought of killing yourself?’. Others are more subtle, like ‘ when did you last enjoy yourself without alcohol?’.’’
Nurses began using the programme early last year and targeted intoxicated or injured youths brought into the emergency department from 10pm to 8am.
The surveys are all done the morning or when they are sober.
In February, the hospital began assessing adults on the same criteria.
‘‘We’ve had three cases [involving teenagers] on the screening where it turned out they had underlying de-
next pression and suicidal thoughts.’’ Mr Quigley believes the programme potentially saved their lives.
The hospital’s emergency department was the only one in the country doing mental health screening associated with intoxication, he said.
However, the success of the programme meant ACC, the Alcohol Advisory Council (Alac) and the Health Ministry were interested in making the technology available to other hospitals.