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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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The College of Paramedics
2021
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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 |
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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 |
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