Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics team up with mental health experts

Severe mental health episodes make up about one in eight call-outs for paramedics in the Darling Downs, and this new service will provide specialist care for people in distress without the need for a trip to the Emergency Department.

Ready to provide care for mental health patients are (from left) Andy Campbell, Sandra Garner and Michelle Kerr via the Toowoomba Mental Health Co-Responder Service. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Second to falls, acute mental health episodes are the most common call-out for paramedics in the Darling Downs.

On any given day they make up between one in eight and one in 12 of all Triple-0 calls for paramedics.

They are calls for people who are in severe distress, who are thinking about ending their own lives or have tried, and they present a unique challenge for the Queensland Ambulance Service’s first responders.

In response, the service is rolling out a co-responder service where senior paramedics team up with a Darling Downs Health mental health clinicians.

There are 14 teams in service across Queensland and the 15th launched in Toowoomba on Tuesday.

The program’s director Sandra Garner said the team would give a person in distress the same assessment, treatment and care as they would in a hospital, but delivered in the comfort of their home.

QAS Mental Health Response Program director Sandra Garner. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“Treating people close to their home is how people with lived experience of mental health crises tell us what they want to be treated,” she said.

“We can use their own resources and their own support networks in real time to overcome the crisis they are experiencing.

“They are also able to receive information and advice and referrals that will be appropriate for them at the time.”

Suicide remains one of the leading causes of preventable death in Queensland, claiming the lives of almost eight times as many people as road traffic crashes.

The Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention recorded 813 suspected deaths by suicide in Queensland in 2021.

This compares to 99 deaths in the same period from road traffic crashes.

The co-responder team paramedics can provide immediate medical care, including wound care, while the mental health clinician can provide referrals to other services.

This includes transporting the patient to their personal doctor, an allied health professional or the home of a family member instead of an automatic trip to hospital.

“There will be times when a person does need to be taken to an Emergency Department, but there will also be time when we can use other resources that are available in the community,” Ms Garner said.