Silke Kuehl, Abigail Freeland, James Stanley, Ruth Cunningham
{"title":"Almost one in five emergency department presentations are by mental health clients: a secondary data analysis.","authors":"Silke Kuehl, Abigail Freeland, James Stanley, Ruth Cunningham","doi":"10.26635/6965.6280","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aim: </strong>Mental health-related emergency department (ED) presentations are steadily increasing, including presentations for both mental health and non-mental health concerns by existing clients of mental health services. The study aim was to examine and compare mental health clients and non-clients' ED presentations, identify data and clinical gaps and make recommendations for improvement.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>De-identified 2017/2018 ED data were used to describe presentations for current and recent (within last 5 years) clients of specialist public mental health and addiction services, compared to presentations of non-mental health clients.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of 49,170 presentations, 18% were by clients of mental health services. Compared to other ED presenters, mental health clients were often younger, female and Māori, required more urgent care and waited longer. Mental health-related International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes/referrals were most common for presentations by current mental health clients, whereas pain and trauma were often the reason for prior mental health clients' presentations. Discharge diagnoses rarely included self-harm behaviour, and admissions for these clients were more commonly by ED rather than mental health services.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Mental health clients are common in ED. Enhanced mental health data capture and improved systems and processes are needed to ensure that ED staff can better meet their often-complex needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":48086,"journal":{"name":"NEW ZEALAND MEDICAL JOURNAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"NEW ZEALAND MEDICAL JOURNAL","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.26635/6965.6280","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Aim: Mental health-related emergency department (ED) presentations are steadily increasing, including presentations for both mental health and non-mental health concerns by existing clients of mental health services. The study aim was to examine and compare mental health clients and non-clients' ED presentations, identify data and clinical gaps and make recommendations for improvement.
Method: De-identified 2017/2018 ED data were used to describe presentations for current and recent (within last 5 years) clients of specialist public mental health and addiction services, compared to presentations of non-mental health clients.
Results: Of 49,170 presentations, 18% were by clients of mental health services. Compared to other ED presenters, mental health clients were often younger, female and Māori, required more urgent care and waited longer. Mental health-related International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes/referrals were most common for presentations by current mental health clients, whereas pain and trauma were often the reason for prior mental health clients' presentations. Discharge diagnoses rarely included self-harm behaviour, and admissions for these clients were more commonly by ED rather than mental health services.
Conclusion: Mental health clients are common in ED. Enhanced mental health data capture and improved systems and processes are needed to ensure that ED staff can better meet their often-complex needs.