Nurses are helping to deliver a new emergency response service for people in Wales experiencing a mental health crisis.
The Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust’s new dedicated mental health response vehicle sees mental health clinicians, largely nurses, attend 999 calls alongside an emergency medical technician, usually a paramedic.
“We look forward to the difference that this latest initiative can make, especially as we head into the challenging winter period”
Liam Williams
The decision to send out this specialist ambulance is made by another senior mental health clinician at the service’s control room.
Specialist clinical lead for mental health at the trust, and registered nurse, Simon Amphlett, said he hoped his organisation’s new offering would help treat people in need of both mental and physical health support holistically.
“Nearly all mental health calls to 999 are for or from someone in a crisis,” he said.
“Many of these people will have thoughts of suicide or self-harm, and some will have acted on these thoughts.
“Additionally, callers to 999 will be calling about a physical health issue but may also have a mental health condition that needs urgent consideration as a part of their care.”
He said the new service would help meet this need, in the face of an estimated 30,000 mental health crisis calls a year made to the trust.
“The attending senior mental health clinician and emergency medical technician then draw upon their respective skillsets to provide specialist support to patients experiencing a mental health crisis,” Mr Amphlett continued.
“The idea is to treat these patients at home, in the community or through specialist mental health support and our staff work in partnership with mental health practitioners elsewhere in NHS Wales to provide the best possible support to anyone going through mental health distress.”
This new scheme was piloted at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board between January and March of this year, via funding from the Gwent Regional Partnership Board.
Now, the dedicated mental health ambulance vehicle operates 12 hours a day (1pm-1am), seven days a week across south-east Wales.
The service will now undertake a recruitment programme to roll out this scheme across the rest of the country.
Similar schemes have previously been launched in England across the last decade, including one in south-east London in 2018, set up in part as a way to reduce hospital admissions.
Liam Williams, executive director of quality and nursing for the Welsh Ambulance Service, said he hoped the new response vehicle would help address rising demand for mental health services in Wales, particularly since Covid-19.
“The NHS, social care, the voluntary sector and other agencies have to work closer than ever before if we are to respond well to the challenges ahead, and this initiative is a step in that direction,” he said.
“With the support of the Welsh Government, we’ve been on an important improvement journey in emergency mental healthcare over the last few years as part of our Mental Health Plan and we have some tangible achievements under our belt.
“We look forward to the difference that this latest initiative can make, especially as we head into the challenging winter period.”
