Assessing involuntary transport of mental health patients by NSW Ambulance paramedics

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Harry Man Xiong Lai and Kevin McLaughlin

University of Sydney, Australia
Australian Centre for Addiction Research, Australia

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

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Introduction: Involuntary transportation of people with a mental illness requires paramedics to balance the protection of the civil liberties of the person with the need to get them to definitive care. Involuntary transport is an intervention of last resort and is only used when all other strategies have been unsuccessful. The power to transport persons against their will was first granted to NSW Ambulance paramedics under the NSW Mental Health Act 2007. Paramedics could only use this power after successful completion of a training program that was incrementally rolled out over a period of five years. Objective: The study evaluated the extent to which involuntary transport was necessary since paramedics were first given this power under the Mental Health Act 2007. Methods: Data were collected by NSW Ambulance from 3 databases–patient history care record (PHCR), electronic medical record (eMR) and computer aid dispatch (CAD) from 2011/12 to 2014/15. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the 4 years’ data. Results: There were over 194,000 mental health related incidents transported over the last 4 financial years; 4,724 (2.5%) of these patients were involuntary transports. The involuntary mental health transport rate increased every year and was 2.9% in 2014-15. Conclusions: This low rate of involuntary transport of persons with a mental illness implies that most patients are willing to be transported to hospital voluntarily and that paramedics are discerning in their use of involuntary powers and only use it where clinically indicated.

Biography

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Email: man-xiong.lai@sydney.edu.au