PARAMEDICS are being called out to around 30 incidents a day in Scotland involving patients with mental health problems, figures show today.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats, who obtained the data under freedom of information, said the scale of demand indicated many psychiatric patients were being driven into crisis because they had failed to receive the support they need from the health service.
The statistics reveals there have been 54,548 ambulance call-outs since 2012 for emergencies related to mental health.
The number of call-outs has remained roughly stable over the past five years with between around 10,000 and 11,000 call-outs annually, peaking at 11,270 in 2013/14 with a low of 10,424 in 2015/16.
Last year, paramedics were called out for 10,895 mental health-related incidents – just under 30 per day.
Scottish LibDems health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “The work our emergency services do is incredible however these figures demonstrate the scale of the challenge they face.
“While there will, of course, be people for whom an ambulance is the most appropriate service, for others a call out will be testament to the failure of other services to intervene and provide the treatment they need earlier.
“We have heard the SNP’s warm words on mental health time after time but are yet to see the action they promise.
“Their new mental health strategy, a blueprint for next 10 years, was 15 months late and derided for its lack of ambition.
“Children are waiting almost two years for treatment and it was recently revealed someone waited 1,200 days to be discharged from a mental health unit.”
It comes after recent figures highlighted the pressures facing the ambulance service, with more than 800 calls going unanswered over the May bank holiday and an average of 44 journeys a day on the Patient Transport Service cancelled amid rising demand a staff shortages.
The service is used to transport patients to hospital by ambulance for non-emergencies, such as cancer treatment.
There have also been concerns after it emerged more than 1,000 mental health patients in the past three years had been admitted to inpatient psychiatric wards out-with their local health board due to bed shortages or a lack of specialist care locally, with some sent 500 miles away.
Frances Simpson, chief executive of Scottish mental health charity, Support in Mind, said: “People experiencing mental distress or mental illness to the extent that they require an ambulance are in crisis and our concerns are that it takes too long to get people the right care and
treatment when a problem first arises and people often have to be in crisis before they get help. We are asking for a specific two-week target for adults with mental illness to receive treatment from the point of first diagnosis.
“This may not prevent every crisis but we know early intervention gives people vastly improved outcomes over the long term."
Ms Simpson added that funding cuts meant low-level preventative services are being lost, storing up more severe health problems.
She said: “We know funding is scarce and stressful or distressing situations just can’t be avoided, but we believe early intervention is an investment worth making.”
Mental health minister Maureen Watt said “We are working to increase access to psychological therapies for everyone and improve responses for people who are in distress or crisis through our new distress brief interventions programme.
“The Scottish Ambulance Service is a key partner in this development.”
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