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For those of you who watch Channel 4’s ‘999 What’s Your Emergency?’ you may have seen the episode on mental health, featuring East Midlands Ambulance Service.
The eye opening documentary gave us insight into the pressures on the ambulance service from those where the needs is not always medical. One professional stated “it’s heartbreaking, we are trained to deal with those with medical needs – that’s where we can make a difference”.
Of the 7.2m pa 999 calls, it is said that between 5 & 10% of them are related to mental health – these are often recurring cases of individuals who will not benefit from the attention of the ambulance service nor a trip to the hospital. The gap between social care and emergency medical services fundamentally needs to be addressed across the Country…
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Starting the movement, EMAS (East Midlands Ambulance Service), and Lincolnshire Charity Adults Supporting Adults (ASA) are setting up a new service to support those individuals who currently fall through the cracks all together.
From December 1st, when the ambulance service take a call from/make a visit to, an individual with social and not medical care needs, they are able to signpost those individuals to the services of PACT, a service of which ASA are part, funded by Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust. This consortium allows medical professionals to signpost people to many types of support – housing, transport, care in the home, mental health or learning disability support.
PACT itself launched in January this year and has created £500,000 of NHS savings in 1 hospital alone. As commissioners discuss this joint venture of health and social services, the service continues to spread across the Counties A&E departments and beyond, to the ambulance services.
Trixie Bennett, CEO of ASA talks about her excitement with this new phase of the PACT project “Not only will the service reach and support thousands a year, reduce bed blocking and NHS cost, but it can now be deployed as a deterrent for hospital admission all together”.
