Cargando…

Frequent callers to UK ambulance services in the COVID-19 pandemic: managing mental health, social isolation and loneliness

OBJECTIVES: Patients who frequently call ambulance services are a vulnerable yet heterogeneous population with unmet multiple and complex physical health, mental health and/or social care needs. In this article, we report the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced for ambulance service...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Scott, Jason, Burtrand, Helen, Churchill, Tim, Cole, Robert, Collins, Tracy, Daxner, Nathan, Fidler, Gayle, Hammond-Williams, Jonathan, Marlow, Benjamin, McNally, Angela, O’Keefe, John, Petterson, Robin, Powell, Deborah, Scott, Stephanie, Scaife, Jayne, Smylie, Joanna, Strickland, Annette
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The College of Paramedics 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8415211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34539257
http://dx.doi.org/10.29045/14784726.2021.09.6.2.66
_version_ 1783747921399775232
author Scott, Jason
Burtrand, Helen
Churchill, Tim
Cole, Robert
Collins, Tracy
Daxner, Nathan
Fidler, Gayle
Hammond-Williams, Jonathan
Marlow, Benjamin
McNally, Angela
O’Keefe, John
Petterson, Robin
Powell, Deborah
Scott, Stephanie
Scaife, Jayne
Smylie, Joanna
Strickland, Annette
author_facet Scott, Jason
Burtrand, Helen
Churchill, Tim
Cole, Robert
Collins, Tracy
Daxner, Nathan
Fidler, Gayle
Hammond-Williams, Jonathan
Marlow, Benjamin
McNally, Angela
O’Keefe, John
Petterson, Robin
Powell, Deborah
Scott, Stephanie
Scaife, Jayne
Smylie, Joanna
Strickland, Annette
author_sort Scott, Jason
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: Patients who frequently call ambulance services are a vulnerable yet heterogeneous population with unmet multiple and complex physical health, mental health and/or social care needs. In this article, we report the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced for ambulance services across the UK when managing frequent callers, and reflect on how existing systems and practices are adapting to support changing patient needs. METHODS: Data reported in this article comprise reflections from the frequent caller leads in each ambulance service in the UK. All data were provided between 23 April 2020 and 1 May 2020, shortly after the peak of the outbreak in the UK. A single anonymised case study is also reported to illustrate how the pandemic is affecting people’s circumstances and contributing to frequent caller behaviour. RESULTS: Ambulance services are observing changes to the frequent caller population, with many new frequent callers due to health anxiety caused or exacerbated by the pandemic. Management of frequent callers is also changing, with multidisciplinary and multi-agency working becoming more challenging due to decreased access to external services, whether in social care or the community and voluntary sector, and the redeployment of ambulance service staff. There is also decreased face-to-face contact with frequent callers, meaning that opportunities to deliver person-centred care are reduced. However, the introduction or increased use of tele/video conferencing with other organisations has mitigated some of these challenges, and in some cases has improved engagement among external organisations. CONCLUSIONS: Health anxieties, lack of access to other health, social and community and voluntary sector services and exacerbations of social isolation and/or loneliness have reportedly contributed to changing behaviour among frequent callers. The COVID-19 pandemic has also affected how ambulance services have been able to manage frequent callers. Ambulance services should continue to engage with external organisations to aid the delivery of person-centred care, particularly organisations with experience in multiple complex needs such as mental health, social isolation and/or loneliness. Future research should examine the consequences of the pandemic for frequent users of ambulance services, and how these impact on the wider health and care community.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8415211
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher The College of Paramedics
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-84152112021-09-17 Frequent callers to UK ambulance services in the COVID-19 pandemic: managing mental health, social isolation and loneliness Scott, Jason Burtrand, Helen Churchill, Tim Cole, Robert Collins, Tracy Daxner, Nathan Fidler, Gayle Hammond-Williams, Jonathan Marlow, Benjamin McNally, Angela O’Keefe, John Petterson, Robin Powell, Deborah Scott, Stephanie Scaife, Jayne Smylie, Joanna Strickland, Annette Br Paramed J Short Report OBJECTIVES: Patients who frequently call ambulance services are a vulnerable yet heterogeneous population with unmet multiple and complex physical health, mental health and/or social care needs. In this article, we report the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced for ambulance services across the UK when managing frequent callers, and reflect on how existing systems and practices are adapting to support changing patient needs. METHODS: Data reported in this article comprise reflections from the frequent caller leads in each ambulance service in the UK. All data were provided between 23 April 2020 and 1 May 2020, shortly after the peak of the outbreak in the UK. A single anonymised case study is also reported to illustrate how the pandemic is affecting people’s circumstances and contributing to frequent caller behaviour. RESULTS: Ambulance services are observing changes to the frequent caller population, with many new frequent callers due to health anxiety caused or exacerbated by the pandemic. Management of frequent callers is also changing, with multidisciplinary and multi-agency working becoming more challenging due to decreased access to external services, whether in social care or the community and voluntary sector, and the redeployment of ambulance service staff. There is also decreased face-to-face contact with frequent callers, meaning that opportunities to deliver person-centred care are reduced. However, the introduction or increased use of tele/video conferencing with other organisations has mitigated some of these challenges, and in some cases has improved engagement among external organisations. CONCLUSIONS: Health anxieties, lack of access to other health, social and community and voluntary sector services and exacerbations of social isolation and/or loneliness have reportedly contributed to changing behaviour among frequent callers. The COVID-19 pandemic has also affected how ambulance services have been able to manage frequent callers. Ambulance services should continue to engage with external organisations to aid the delivery of person-centred care, particularly organisations with experience in multiple complex needs such as mental health, social isolation and/or loneliness. Future research should examine the consequences of the pandemic for frequent users of ambulance services, and how these impact on the wider health and care community. The College of Paramedics 2021-09-01 2021-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8415211/ /pubmed/34539257 http://dx.doi.org/10.29045/14784726.2021.09.6.2.66 Text en © 2021 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Short Report
Scott, Jason
Burtrand, Helen
Churchill, Tim
Cole, Robert
Collins, Tracy
Daxner, Nathan
Fidler, Gayle
Hammond-Williams, Jonathan
Marlow, Benjamin
McNally, Angela
O’Keefe, John
Petterson, Robin
Powell, Deborah
Scott, Stephanie
Scaife, Jayne
Smylie, Joanna
Strickland, Annette
Frequent callers to UK ambulance services in the COVID-19 pandemic: managing mental health, social isolation and loneliness
title Frequent callers to UK ambulance services in the COVID-19 pandemic: managing mental health, social isolation and loneliness
title_full Frequent callers to UK ambulance services in the COVID-19 pandemic: managing mental health, social isolation and loneliness
title_fullStr Frequent callers to UK ambulance services in the COVID-19 pandemic: managing mental health, social isolation and loneliness
title_full_unstemmed Frequent callers to UK ambulance services in the COVID-19 pandemic: managing mental health, social isolation and loneliness
title_short Frequent callers to UK ambulance services in the COVID-19 pandemic: managing mental health, social isolation and loneliness
title_sort frequent callers to uk ambulance services in the covid-19 pandemic: managing mental health, social isolation and loneliness
topic Short Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8415211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34539257
http://dx.doi.org/10.29045/14784726.2021.09.6.2.66
work_keys_str_mv AT scottjason frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT burtrandhelen frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT churchilltim frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT colerobert frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT collinstracy frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT daxnernathan frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT fidlergayle frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT hammondwilliamsjonathan frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT marlowbenjamin frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT mcnallyangela frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT okeefejohn frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT pettersonrobin frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT powelldeborah frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT scottstephanie frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT scaifejayne frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT smyliejoanna frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness
AT stricklandannette frequentcallerstoukambulanceservicesinthecovid19pandemicmanagingmentalhealthsocialisolationandloneliness