Prof. Kerrianne Watt1, Dr Verena Pritchard, Ms Sandra Garner, Professor Emma Bosley
1Queensland Ambulance Service, Brisbane, Australia
Introduction
Mental health (MH) presentations to ambulance services and EDs across Australia are rising. Over 300,000 ED presentations for MH were recorded in 2020-21. In 2019, the MH co-responder model (MHCORE) was implemented in Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) to provide a specialised MH response to patients in crisis, allowing for immediate MH intervention within the community, thereby reducing demands on emergency services and EDs.
The MHCORE evaluation is a comprehensive, multi-method, multi-phased study designed to evaluate the process, impact, and outcomes of the MHCORE programme for staff and consumers. This presentation focuses on phase 1.
Methods
Phase 1 utilises data on consumers attended by QAS MHCORE in 2021 (1st Jan-31st Dec) to create a profile of MHCORE consumers and their QAS MH attendances. Patterns of presentations/service utilisation prior to and following engagement with MHCORE are compared with consumers who did not engage with MHCORE.
Results
During 2021, there were 4,707 QAS MHCORE attendances, relating to 3,734 individuals (M age=35.21yrs; 56% female). Significantly fewer MHCORE attendances resulted in transportation (28% vs 74%) and EEAs (10% vs 20%) than non-MHCORE attendances. The ratio of transports:attendances and EEAs:attendances decreased significantly from pre to post for MHCORE consumers, but remained unchanged for non-MHCORE consumers.
Conclusion
Phase 1 provides preliminary support for the effectiveness of MHCORE. Phase 2 involves linkage of phase 1 QAS data with ED/hospitalisation and MH service use data, which will be crucial in more comprehensively understanding the impacts of MHCORE for consumers, and on broader service provision (ED, MH services, QPS).
Biography:
Professor Kerrianne Watt (Principal Research Manager, QAS) is an Epidemiologist with over 20 years of experience in research methods/evidence-based practice, and specific expertise in injury/trauma & the prehospital/emergency sector. Her focus is on developing and evaluating evidence in the prehospital sector that directly translates to improved health/wellbeing.