Mental health ambulance callouts and annual costs (FOI)

Request

Please kindly provide:

A

The number of ambulance callouts for people experiencing mental health problems each year over the past five years.

B

The amount of hours spent supporting people with their mental health each year over the past five years.

C

Please kindly provide the amount of money spent by the States each year on mental health services each year over the past five years.

For all of the above, if possible, please provide the data for both adults and children separately.

Response

A

The figures below show the number of calls where the chief complaint is recorded as either Mental / Emotional (until mid-2015) or Psychiatric / Suicide attempt (2015 onwards) in the AMPDS (Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System) Triage System.

• 2012 – 51

• 2013 – 88

• 2014 – 81

• 2015 – 99

• 2016 – 148

Please note that calls may be categorised based on an injury which may or may not have been the result of a mental health problem i.e. overdose / poisoning. As such, these figures do not provide an accurate representation of calls where a mental health problem is a factor.

B

This information is not held.

C

In order to provide an accurate response, we have limited the scope of the response to direct costs of specialist mental health services provided by the Health and Social Services Department (HSSD). As such, the figures provided do not include:

• overhead and centrally managed costs such as corporate administration functions or estates / facilities

• funding provided to third sector providers

• funding provided to primary care providers (GPs)

• costs incurred by the Education Department in providing psychology, wellbeing and behavioural support in schools

• staff training costs

• mental health treatment provided by the Ambulance Service or Emergency Department

• Alcohol and Drug services

• Learning Disability services

The apparent reduction in spending on Adult Mental Health since 2014 is due to the ending of Long Term Care Benefit transitional funding arrangements between HSSD and the Long Term Care Benefit Fund. This resulted in the net cost of Long Term Care dropping in Adult Mental Health in HSSD from 2014.