Recent amendments to Queensland legislation make mental health presentations to hospital emergency departments more difficult to scrutinise

Alan R Clough; Angela Evans; Kristy Grant; Veronica Graham; Janet Catterall; Richard Lakeman; John Gilroy; Gregory Pratt; Joe Petrucci; Richard Stone

doi:10.1111/1742-6723.13878

Recent amendments to Queensland legislation make mental health presentations to hospital emergency departments more difficult to scrutinise

Emerg Med Australas. 2022 Feb;34(1):130-133. doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.13878. Epub 2021 Oct 12.

Authors

Alan R Clough^{1

2}, Angela Evans³, Kristy Grant^{1

2}, Veronica Graham¹, Janet Catterall⁴, Richard Lakeman⁵, John Gilroy⁶, Gregory Pratt⁷, Joe Petrucci⁸, Richard Stone⁹

Affiliations

¹ College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
² Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
³ Queensland Police Service, Far Northern Region, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
⁴ Library and Information Services, James Cook University Library, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
⁵ Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
⁶ Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁷ QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁸ QLD and NT Neami National Cairns, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
⁹ Emergency Department, Cairns Hospital, Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

PMID: 34643039
DOI: 10.1111/1742-6723.13878

Abstract

The Queensland Police Service (QPS) and Queensland Ambulance Service may detain and transport persons experiencing major disturbances in their mental capacity to an ED for urgent care. Queensland's new mental health legislation (March 2017) makes this legal intervention difficult to scrutinise. For a large non-metropolitan region, QPS records for emergency examination orders (EEOs) and emergency examination authorities (EEAs) were compared with annual reports of Queensland's Director of Mental Health and Chief Psychiatrist. From 2009-2010 to March 2017, QPS-registered EEOs totalled 12 903 while annual reports attributed 9441 to QPS (27% fewer). From March 2017 to 2019-2020, QPS-registered EEAs totalled 6887. Annual reports declared 1803 EEAs in total for this period, without distinguishing those registered by QPS from the Queensland Ambulance Service. Past year proportions of EEOs, however, indicate perhaps ~1100 originated with QPS (84% fewer). Information crucial for considered emergency mental healthcare responses for thousands of people is no longer readily available.

Keywords: emergency medical service; involuntary hospitalisation; involuntary treatment; jurisprudence; mental health.

MeSH terms

Ambulances*
Emergency Service, Hospital
Hospitals
Humans
Mental Health*
Queensland

Abstract

MeSH terms

Grants and funding