Rolling response keeps mental health patients out of A&E

Ambulance mental health response vehicles treat most patients in crisis outside hospital, new figures from the EEAST show.

East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) said specialist mental health response teams are helping reduce the number of people taken to hospital during mental health emergencies.

The trust, working with local mental health services across the East of England, reported more than 80% of patients in crisis are now supported outside hospital settings.

Its Mental Health Response Vehicles – first launched in 2021 – are staffed by ambulance clinicians and mental health professionals, and are dispatched to selected 999 calls.

In Bedfordshire, the Trust also runs a mental health street triage service in partnership with Bedfordshire Police and local mental health services.

When the scheme was first announced in Cambridgeshire, Carolyn Coenen, from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘A&E is not the appropriate place for somebody who is going through mental health crisis, I think it is important that people are treated in the comfort of their own environment.’

Between 1 January and 30 April this year, the service attended 3,315 mental health emergencies. 

Of those, 2,040 people received face-to-face support, 957 were given telephone advice, and 318 cases were managed through advice provided to ambulance crews or police at the scene or via control rooms. 

Overall, 82% of patients were referred to specialist community services, while 17% were taken to hospital for physical health treatment or because their mental health needs could not be safely managed in the community. 

Liz Ip Piang Siong, Head of Mental Health for EEAST, said: ‘Going to hospital can be stressful for anyone, but people experiencing a mental health crisis can find it particularly distressing.

‘By working closely with healthcare professionals in the community, we provide care outside a hospital setting for the vast majority of patients. This is often the most appropriate form of treatment and, importantly, their preferred choice.’

Image: Eugene Chystiakov/UnSplash 

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