Tasmania’s successful Mental Health Emergency Response service has completed its major region rollout, with the northern area becoming the final region to benefit from the initiative.
The service has been operating in Northern Tasmania for two weeks and has already assisted more than 40 people experiencing mental health crises.
Health Minister Roger Jaensch said the PACER program’s expansion marked a significant milestone in Tasmania’s mental health system reform.
“The integrated co-response model brings together mental health clinicians, paramedics and police to provide timely and appropriate care to Tasmanians in the community,” Jaensch said.
“We know the emergency department isn’t always the best place for people with mental ill health and evidence demonstrates that being supported to stay in a community environment through dignified and compassionate care leads to much better outcomes.”
The northern service operates seven days a week from 1pm to 11pm, following the same model used successfully in other regions since January 2022.
Taylor Davies, a clinical nurse consultant who is one of the two clinicians part of the new northern PACER team, said it is important to focus on treating a client in the home rather than taking them to a hospital.
“At least half of the people that I’ve responded to so far have said ‘wow this is a great service, I didn’t know that it existed’ … they’ve really said okay this is what I needed in this moment, Davies said.
“In that time where everything’s quite heightened and in that crisis event, to have someone that can come in and sit down on the couch and it’s so much less clinicalized and formal … there’s been real positive feedback.”
Since its inception, the teams have responded to more than 6000 callouts statewide via Triple Zero, with nearly three-quarters of cases avoiding unnecessary hospital attendance.
The northern expansion was implemented following a recommendation from the Independent Review of Tasmania’s Major Hospital Emergency Departments.
The development involved input from key stakeholders including Mental Health Lived Experience Tasmania and Mental Health Family and Friends Tasmania.
