11 Dec 2023
SAS boosts mental health services after successful pilot
The use of a dedicated vehicle to respond to mental health emergencies is being expanded in Inverness following a successful pilot of the initiative, the Scottish Ambulance Service has announced.
Backed by £2.6 million Scottish Government funding over the past three years, mental health triage cars have been piloted in Inverness, Dundee and Glasgow since 2021, providing specialist frontline mental health workers to respond to incidents in communities.
Under the new plans, five new specialist staff members are being introduced to staff the mental health response car which will operate out of Inverness and provide services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The dedicated mental health response unit, based at Inverness Ambulance station, provides specialist mental health assessment, care, and support for people who are experiencing mental health challenges and who contact the Scottish Ambulance Service for help.
Michael Dickson, Chief Executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “Our clinicians are often the first responders to have contact with a person experiencing mental health distress. These are patients with very specific needs and often require specialist help and support to make sure they get the right care.
“These units are staffed by paramedics who have undertaken advanced mental health training. The aim is to treat these patients at home, within the community, or through specialist mental health support and our staff work in partnership with mental health practitioners at New Craigs Hospital to provide the best possible support to any individual going through mental health distress.
“It’s been a really successful initiative so far and our ambition across all three pilot areas is to connect people to the most appropriate care to meet their needs and for them to get the right care, in the right place.”
Mental Wellbeing Minister Maree Todd said: “I am delighted to visit the Mental Health Paramedic Unit today to mark the expansion to this service within Inverness following the successful pilot. It is great to see how Scottish Government is supporting this service to work with partners and mental health professionals to improve decision making and improve care outcomes.
“This is a dynamic and evolving service responding to people who need emergency mental health support and importantly, this expansion will allow that support to be provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week in Inverness.
“Everyone in Scotland, in need of mental health support should know the various ways that they can access help, whether through NHS inform, their GP, the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub or though SAS when there is an immediate threat to life.”
Contact Information
Scottish Ambulance Press Office
sas.press@nhs.scot
Notes to editors
Background
- It's estimated that at least one in four people a year in the UK will experience mental health challenges, and the number of people contacting the emergency services about mental health concerns is also increasing.
- The Scottish Ambulance Service have attended over 50,000 mental health call outs in the past 5 years.
- The Scottish Ambulance Service has a further range of support services in place for people calling 999 to report mental health distress:
o SAS has partnered with NHS 24 and Police Scotland as part of the Enhanced Mental Health Pathway to continue the development of a Mental Health Hub which is hosted within NHS 24. Accessible for patients 24 hours a day, the Hub is staffed by psychological wellbeing practitioners, mental health nurse practitioners and mental health senior charge nurses. In support of the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) national roll-out, SAS continues to connect people in distress through this initiative, offering a response to people who have called 999.
o Mental health clinical advisers are also based at the Service’s ambulance control centres (ACCs), an initiative that is the first of its kind in Scotland.
- The Scottish Government has published information on NHS inform on how to access urgent mental health support at different times of the days, on behalf of someone else, including a child or young person, or if the person is a visitor or has recently arrived in Scotland. People are encouraged to phone their GP surgery or, where possible, their usual mental health team in the first instance. If they are unable to access mental health support that way, the NHS 24 Mental Health Hub is available 24/7 on 111, and they will direct people to the right help.
- If there is an immediate risk, for example by serious injury or overdose, or there is a life- or limb-threatening emergency, people should call 999 or go their nearest A&E.
Picture caption: Trevor Bechtel, Mental Health Paramedic Team Leader, SAS; Michael Dickson, Chief Executive, SAS; Ricky Begg, Mental Health Paramedic Response Unit Service Manager, SAS; Mental Wellbeing Minister Maree Todd; Lesley Smith, Mental Health Assessment Unit Nurse Manager, NHS Highland; Iona Crawford, Dementia and Mental Health Lead, SAS; Steven Gorman, Head of Service (Highland), SAS; Milne Weir, Regional Director - North, SAS.
- The Scottish Ambulance Service employs over 5000 highly skilled staff.
- We provide an emergency ambulance service to a population of over 5 million people, serving all mainland and island communities.
- Our Patient Transport Service also takes around 1 million patients to and from hospital.
- Each year, we respond to over 1.5 million calls for assistance.
- Over 600,000 of these are emergency and unscheduled incidents.
- We transfer around 90,000 patients between hospitals.
- Our air ambulance service undertakes around 3,500 missions.
- Our ScotSTAR service transfers 2,500 of Scotland's most seriously ill patients each year.
- We are assisted by over 1,200 volunteers, such as our community first responders.
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