Clients with a mental illness often 'too challenging' for emergency departments
Published on 28 April, 2010
Hospital emergency departments have become a main access point for clients with a mental illness requiring assessment and care. However, ED staff are "poorly equipped" to provide the care required and mental health services are "not always ideally positioned to respond in a timely fashion".
That's according to CQUniversity Noosa academic Marc Broadbent who will present a keynote address on this issue to the Mental Health Units Conference in Sydney (June 24-25).
The conference theme is 'Striving Towards Seamless Care Between Mental Health Units, Emergency Departments and Community Health', with details via www.iir.com.au/mentalhealth .
Mr Broadbent will discuss emergency triage assessment; the use of mental health triage scales in Australia and why the Australasian Triage Scale "doesn't work" for clients with mental illness.
He said he received the conference invitation as the coordinator had seen an article recently published (Broadbent, M. Moxham, L & Dwyer, T. 2010. Review of triage reform: the case for national consensus on a single triage scale for clients with a mental illness in Australian emergency departments. Journal of Clinical Nursing. vol. 19, pp. 712-715) .
"This work has emerged from my PhD and while not the central focus of my research is an issue that has emerged as one that is contemporaneous and attracting much discussion."
"My PhD is focused on the factors that influence the relationships between (ED) and mental health nurses at the point of initial triage in the ED and the use of triage scales and their development and effectiveness is a component of that research - hence my involvement in the conference."