West Midland’s Ambulance service have launched a new fleet of Mentah Health Response Vehicle’s to better assist emergency calls regarding mental health concerns
Read some FAQs here:
What are MHRVs?
Mental Health Response Vehicles (MHRVs) are a new all age, first-line response service WMAS are launching to provide enhanced assessment and care to those patients presenting via 999 or 111 to the service, using a new national specification of Mental Health Vehicle
Who is working on the MHRVs? The MHRVs will be crewed by one Specialist Mental Health Paramedic (SMHP) and one Support Clinician. What cases will the MHRV attend? When available, the MHRVs will be the first choice response to any 999 or 111 call requiring an ambulance response, where the primary complaint is a mental health concern.
How will SMHPs assess patients?
SMHPs will undertake holistic assessments on the patients they see, including appropriate physical assessments, Mental State Examinations and risk assessments. This will then allow the clinicians to make appropriate decisions in terms of referral pathways for each patient they see. SMHPs will tailor their assessments to the individual, keeping in mind the physical/mental health interface
Will MHRVs attend assessments in the community?
MHRVs cannot be pre-booked or held for planned attendances. If, at the point attendance is required, the local MHRV is available and not required for any outstanding 999 cases, the MHRV will be assigned to the case but could be cancelled and replaced with an emergency ambulance should they be required for a 999 case up to the point of arrival on scene.