Mental Health Services

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:38): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing on the topic of mental health response to 000 calls.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: I draw the council's attention to the Victorian government, which is partnering their ambulance service with Barwon Health in an innovative trial that gives locals living in the Geelong area with acute mental health issues the treatment and care that they deserve.

The Victorian government has announced, in April this year, the Prehospital Response of Mental Health and Paramedic Team, or PROMPT for short, a trial which has seen specialist mental health staff join paramedics in attending call-outs where mental health may be a factor. This trial has meant that patients are assessed and triaged sooner, and fewer patients would need to be taken to those emergency departments in this area. The specialist mental health staff arrive at the call-outs in normal vehicles, removing the risk that these patients may become further distressed at the sight of an ambulance. Calls to 000 can be answered by either paramedics or the specialist PROMPT team, and the PROMPT team indeed may become the first responders.

I understand this also builds on the emergency department crisis hub at the University Hospital Geelong, providing people with the urgent mental health treatment that they get there with dedicated specialist care to ensure that we are keeping people with mental health emergencies out of further escalated situations which diminish their mental health. Finally, I will add that I do understand WA also has a similar program, although I don't have details of that program.

My question to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing is: is South Australia considering similar programs to ensure that we have better response for mental health responses to 000 calls?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:41): I thank the honourable member for her question. I would answer in two parts. First of all, my understanding is that the mental health crisis team is actually located in the ambulance service headquarters in Eastwood, and the ambulance service has actually been looking for opportunities to strengthen the value of that co-location—in other words, to engage the mental health clinicians in 000 responses.

In terms of her second question about: are we considering putting mental health clinicians in with paramedic teams, the answer is yes. In fact, we are piloting it as we speak. I am more than happy to arrange for a briefing for the honourable member on it. The interesting point that the honourable member makes in relation to the Barwon trial is apparently a link between the 000 response centre and the clinicians on the ground. I honestly don't know whether that is an aspect of our trial.

Certainly, the feedback I have received from the outcomes of the trial so far have been positive. I know that the Premier's Advocate for Suicide Prevention and the council have received a briefing from the Ambulance Service. The advocate of course can speak for himself, but my understanding was that it was a well-received presentation, and the program is seen positively.

The honourable member raises a very interesting point. I think we need to remember the diversity of our state. When I was in Mount Gambier recently, I was talking to ED staff about mental health responses. Of course, in a community like that, it would be unlikely to be viable to put a mental health specialist clinician in with an ambulance crew. In a metropolitan context you can imagine that if the pilot works and it is scalable you might have regional teams, but it is unlikely that a community the size of Mount Gambier would be able to justify a dedicated team.

But it may well be that we develop ways where the community mental health team interfaces with the ED department. Of course, they already do with the inpatient mental health services. I suppose the point I am making is the connectivity between paramedics, mental health clinicians and, to be frank, the police—other people who are doing first responses; we need to find innovative ways.

It is not infrequent for an ambulance response or a police response to have to deal with mental health issues. To have the expertise of a mental health clinician either in the vehicle with you or telehealth or dial-up, whatever it might be, can help de-escalate the situation so that it might be possible to provide treatment closer to home—that people can get the mental health support they need without perhaps going to an emergency department.

But I certainly agree with the spirit of the honourable member's question in terms of looking for innovative ways to improve our mental health response. I appreciate her raising the Victorian pilot; I will certainly look at that. As I said, I will undertake to arrange for a briefing with the honourable member on what is happening in this space in South Australia.