introduction to Mental health in maitland hospital ed

patient’s are triaged by our assessment to three pathways:

1) Referred to primary care for mental health care plan

2) Referred to the acute care team for urgent community mental health follow up

3) Inpatient admission

Below you will find the pathways for referral or admission, and a link to the Mental Health Triage form (currently in draft format). There is a PDF version for printing if you prefer to hand write, or a word document version which can be filled live.

If you scroll further down you will find a guide to the Mental Health Act paperwork.

Mental Health pathways cheat sheet

Mental Health Assessment

Mental health Assessment- word version

The role of the EDMO is to assess early,

validate the patient concerns, listen, and deescalate the situational crisis
risk assess pt safety and support network
direct to most appropriate ongoing mental health support pathway (GP, HVMHS-ACT, inpatient team) where they can have their more comprehensive mental health assessment and support continued.
you are not the one whom needs to do a "Comprehensive Mental Health Assessment"...

A SIMPLIFIED GUIDE TO THE MENTAL HEALTH ACT PAPERWORK

what form do I fill in when…?

This is frequently done incorrectly but it is alarmingly simple as you will see below. Whilst litigation in these matters is uncommon, if we (as a unit) have removed a person’s autonomy via the Mental Health Act we should try to get the paperwork correct, so that we are doing so legally. Some notes before we begin:

SRMOs, CMOs, Registrars and FACEMs are authorised medical officers, TMH is a “designated facility.”
Always go “UP” in the Sections (if you’re filling in a Section that has a lower number than the pre-hospital paperwork you’ve got the wrong one)
If a person is disordered and intoxicated it is legal to detain them involuntarily under Duty of Care i.e. we have a duty of care once they have arrived in our ED to not discharge them in the middle of the night to wander into traffic. It is not necessary to complete specific forms for this but do note it in your documentation.

1. Patients who need involuntary admission to MH unit

Section 19
&
Section 27 (Form 1)
Forms need to be filled in by different authors.
The Section 27 should be completed by the more senior clinician.
Complete section 27 (Form 1)
Complete Section 27 (Form 1)
Complete section 27 (Form 1)
Form 1 (Section 27)
NB: Ensure that the Section 19 was filled in correctly at the peripheral site. If not, and the patient clearly needs involuntary admission - fill in another Section 19.
(The Section 27/Form 1 and the Section 19 paperwork need to be completed by different authors - as the Form 1 corroborates the information contained on the Section 19)