Emergency Patients with Mental Crisis Accessing Emergency Medical Services in Thailand

Abstract

Introduction:

Emergency responders face an increasing number of calls involving people with behavioral and mental crisis issue. Integrated multi-agency schemes involving ambulance, police and mental health services are now being developed to provide urgent and emergency care pathways for these vulnerable patients.

Aim:

The objectives were to study the situation, characteristics, issues, and accessibility to emergency medical services (EMS) and appropriate treatment for emergency patients with a mental crisis in Thailand.

Methods:

The sample included 26,511 mental crisis patients accessing EMS. Data were obtained from the database of the Information Technology for Emergency Medical System between 2015-2017 and from stakeholders from four provinces distributed regionally using focus groups and in-depth interviews. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis.

Results:

The number of patients with mental crisis accessing EMS increased in the past three years. Most patients are male in the working age group from the Northeastern area during the raining and winter season, especially between September and October. During patient encounters with maniacal attacks, assistance will be requested from the police and the emergency medical units. The response depends on the experience and community capability. The emergency responder teams had insufficient knowledge and skills. Emergency rooms in most hospitals lack specific caring unit. Psychiatric hospitals have different criteria for admitting patients. Most had no fast track system and even refuse admittance.

Discussion:

Mental crisis patient calls with EMS were rising. However, accessibility to appropriate service centers was still an issue. Most hospitals lack prioritized access and staffs had insufficient knowledge and skills. Cooperation among the police, emergency medical operation team and the rapid psychiatric emergency team is need to be reinforced.