Improving Care for Psychiatric Patients in Emergency Departments

This report addresses the critical issue of mental health patients in hospital emergency departments, highlighting significant challenges in providing timely and appropriate care. The study reveals that these patients often experience prolonged wait times compared to those with physical ailments, leading to potential negative outcomes, including patients leaving before treatment is completed. The report emphasizes the unique needs of psychiatric patients, who may require verbal interventions and are sometimes unable to articulate their needs effectively. It suggests that emergency departments are sometimes ill-equipped to address these needs, and proposes the development of specialized emergency departments to reduce stress, improve access to mental health care, and provide more effective treatment strategies. The report references multiple studies to support its findings, advocating for increased investment in community mental health services as a crucial component of an improved healthcare system.

Abstract
Emergency departments of hospitals always play a critical role in managing the crisis
of patients with various issues. Patients frequently visit the emergency department of
hospitals when they are in crisis irrespective of their state of illness. Psychiatric patients
present to the emergency department when they are in any kind of mental health crisis. In a
study, researchers clearly disclosed the fact that 10% of the patients of emergency
departments are of mental health illness (Willis, 2018). All the physicians, present in the
emergency departments, need to deal with various patients and they treat them according to
the priority and in this regard, many studies revealed that patients with mental health crisis
need to wait a long to get the treatment when compared to the patients with physical health
crisis. According to some reports, mental health patients wait longer than other patients to be
assessed and treated (Willis, 2018). According to some reports, in UK, one in five hospitals,
fail to hit their waiting-time target (Triggle & Jeavans, n.d). Even, in some cases, mental
health patients are more likely to leave the hospital without finishing the treatment procedure.
Patients with mental health issue need to leave hospital at their own risk and against any kind
of medical advice (Willis, 2018). In a study, it has been clearly found that, 90% patients of
emergency departments leave the hospitals within 7 hours of their visit but in case of mental
health patients they can leave from 11.5 to 16.5 hours as they need to wait a long for the
treatment (Willis, 2018). Sometimes, it becomes difficult to take care of the patients with
physical as well as mental health illness simultaneously. Again, some studies highlighted a
population in need of more targeted mental health supports (Zun, 2016). Emergency
departments do a really great job in determining how to improve the care of all the medical
patients who are in need of care but they sometimes lack behind in addressing all the unique
needs of mental health patients. Psychiatric patients have a unique set of preferences and
requirements that widely differs from the preferences and requirements of non-psychiatric

patients. Psychiatric patients want verbal interventions as well as oral medications and in
some cases they are unable to express their actual need. Physicians present in the emergency
departments might show some negative attitudes towards the psychiatric patients which will
lead to poor patient outcome. In this regard, an improved as well as specialized and specific
emergency department for the patients with mental health crisis can be extremely effective. In
many communities, emergency departments are the only option to treat acute mental health
problems (Wise-Harris et al., 2017). A better environment in the emergency department
specifically for the patients with mental health illness is highly necessary. A separate
emergency department for the patients with mental health crisis would reduce the stress.
Many studies clearly reflect poor access to the mental health care which is delivered in the
outpatient settings (Saunders et al., 2018). A better understanding of this barrier is highly
necessary in solving the issue and a specific emergency department to treat mental health
crisis can be one of the most effective strategies and experts suggest a greater investment in
community mental health services in this regard (Saunders et al., 2018).

References
Saunders, N. R., Gill, P. J., Holder, L., Vigod, S., Kurdyak, P., Gandhi, S., & Guttmann, A.
(2018). Use of the emergency department as a first point of contact for mental health
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E1183-E1191. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.180277
Triggle, N. & Jeavans, C. (n.d). The hospitals that fail to treat patients on time. Retrieved
from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46212058
Willis, O. (2018, October 11). Emergency departments in 'crisis' as mental health patients left
waiting: new report. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2018-10-
08/emergency-department-mental-health-crisis/10344852
Wise-Harris, D., Pauly, D., Kahan, D., De Bibiana, J. T., Hwang, S. W., & Stergiopoulos, V.
(2017). “Hospital was the only option”: experiences of frequent emergency
department users in mental health. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and
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Zun, L. (2016). Care of psychiatric patients: the challenge to emergency physicians. Western
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https://dx.doi.org/10.5811%2Fwestjem.2016.1.29648