Mental health bed shortage causing dangerous ‘pressures’, experts warn
A shortage of mental health beds is creating “pressure” for patients to be discharged without help. It comes as two fatal police shootings.
QLD News
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A shortage of staffed mental health inpatient beds is creating “pressure” for patients to be discharged from emergency departments without receiving critical help needed a medical peak body has warned.
It comes as Queensland’s newly minted Mental Health Minister Shannon Fentiman acknowledged there was “much more” that can be done to improve treatment access for those who need it and said injecting more funds into the mental health system was a “top priority”.
Mental health care at Queensland’s emergency departments has come under the spotlight after two men, in separate incidents, were sent to hospital for mental ill health, released, then shot dead by police the next day.
Steven Angus, a 52-year-old veteran, was shot by police in Townsville on April 21. He had been sent to Townsville University Hospital by police hours earlier following a siege and threats of self-harm.
On Sunday a 29-year-old man was shot dead by police in Grange after lunging at officers with a knife and pitchfork. He had been sent to hospital on Saturday amid a mental health incident.
Townsville and Metro North Hospital and Health Services are undertaking full clinical reviews into the incidents.
Australasian College for Emergency Medicine president Dr Clare Skinner said people presenting to emergency departments for acute mental health care were experiencing “unacceptably long and dangerous waits” to receive the care they need nationwide.
She said there were also “significant deficits” across Queensland’s inpatient psychiatric and community-based mental health care in Queensland, particularly a shortage of staffed mental health inpatient beds which “created pressures” for patients to be discharged.
AMA Queensland spokesman Dr Rob Nayer, an emergency doctor, said it can be “very challenging” to figure out a person’s risk profile in an emergency department setting and frontline staff do the best they can.
“We have no innate ability to know who’s going to harm themselves or who’s going to harm someone else,” he said.
“And so we do what we can, but we also need to rely on the patient (and those close to them) to help us understand what’s happening and where those risks lay.
“We do the best job we can, but sometimes bad things happen.”
Dr Nayer said community mental health services needed to be improved, funding to GPs for mental health reviews increased, and the number of Medicare funded psychology bumped up so people can make meaningful long term gains.
He also called for better funding for alcohol and drug rehabilitation services, noting substance abuse issues frequently go hand-in-hand with mental health struggles.
The ACEM has called for governments to improve care for people needing mental health support and “address unsustainable pressures” on emergency departments, with solutions including better community health options and full-staffed mental health beds.
Ms Fentiman cited privacy issues for not delving into the detail of the Grange shooting death but signalled it revealed the treatment of patients needed to be prioritised when they attend for mental health reasons.
“We know we need to do more. It’s going to be one of my top priorities,” she said.
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