Charleston Dorchester Mental Health uses Vidyo on the road, a multi-agency collaboration they call TelePsych.
Automatic Transcript:
It’s a sector of the population in need of
help that oftentimes ends up in the wrong place.
We’re talking about people with
mental health issues or addiction.
Routinely, EMS units are dispatched out to help, but
without the means to address the core problem.
In the past, EMS has had really two alternatives.
We could either release them to law enforcement
for transportation to prison or to jail, or
we could transport them to the emergency Department.
Beyond that, there was really no other options for
us, and our focus was really what kind of
treatment do we give people in the back of
the unit, as opposed to really?
Where do they need to go as
the most appropriate treatment for them?
Today, a new multi agency collaboration has taken the
crucial steps towards a solution for those in need.
It’s called TelePsych, and it’s designed to
keep mental health and addiction patients out
of the jail and the emergency room.
It helps address the root cause, helps address their
mental health and substance use disorders, and it doesn’t
have them in an emergency Department or in jail.
And then that also directs taxpayer dollars
resources where they need to be.Officers can get back on the streets faster.
Our emergency vehicles can be back out on
the streets faster so that they can address
community concerns that are more emergent.
Here’s how it works.
Dispatch receives a call for assistance and routes.
Ems paramedics will first clear the patient of
any immediate medical needs and contact the duty
supervisor in a quick response vehicle so the
ambulance can get back out on the road.
Next, a member of the mobile crisis team is contacted.
Once they determine that a person doesn’t need primary care services
to then call a supervisor out to the scene who has
a program called Vidyo in his SUV, and then he can
bounce back to Mobile Crisis, which is our emergency response team
to have that patient immediately evaluated for psychiatric needs while the
EMS is on the scene and they don’t have to wait
for anybody to come out.
to have that patient immediately evaluated for psychiatric needs while the
EMS is on the scene and they don’t have to wait
for anybody to come out.
They don’t have to transport the
person necessarily to an Er.
They can have the assessment done immediately on scene.