Patients with mental crisis accessing emergency medical services system in Thailand

4^th Annual Congress and Medicare Expo on Trauma & Critical Care

February 22-23, 2018 | Paris, France

Porntip Wachiradilok

National Institute of Emergency Medicine, Thailand

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Trauma Treat

Abstract :

Introduction: Emergency responders face an increasing number of calls involving people with behavioral and mental crisis issue. They must be able to recognize signs of mental distress, apply proven techniques for dangerous situations and referrals for them to obtain mental health care. Objective: To study the situation, characteristics, issues and accessibility to the emergency medical services (EMS) and appropriate treatment for emergency patients with a mental crisis in Thailand. Method: The sample included 26,511 mental crisis patients accessing EMS from data base of the information technology for emergency medical system from 2014-2016 and stakeholder from four provinces distributed regionally using focus group and in-depth interview. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Result: The number of patients with mental crisis accessing EMS was increasing for the past 5 years. Most patients are male in working age group from the Northeastern during the rainy and winter season, especially between September and October. During patients 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 operation 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 not fast track system and even refuse admittance. Conclusion: The number of mental crisis patients with EMS was 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 needed to be reinforced.