Mental Health Symposium: What EMS Sees
Published on Tuesday, June 4, 2024 at 4:30 p.m.
- Terry Dunn of EMS speaks to symposium participants. (Photo: Lance Gaither)
May 2024 was Mental Health Awareness Month. Ephraim McDowell Health and the Danville Rotary Club teamed up to host a Mental Health Symposium on May 29th at the Boyle County Library to encourage discussion about mental health in the community.
During the symposium, Boyle County Emergency Medical Services Outreach Coordinator Terry Dunn and Community Behavioral Specialist Mark Smith spoke about the mental health issues EMS sees in the county.
Boyle County EMS recently hired Mark Smith to help locals struggling with mental health issues. This is a new position. EMS is working to create a crisis response team dedicated to responding to mental health crises.
“You never know what you’re going to encounter when you get out there,” Smith said. “We’re seeing a lot of substance abuse, mental illness, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts. We’re preparing now and hope to be up and running in July. The purpose of the crisis response team will be to meet with individuals on the ground, conduct an assessment, de-escalate and provide any resources we can.”
Dunn explained that Boyle County EMS is expecting an increase in response volumes once the Crisis Response Team is activated. He provided numbers that the EMS Rapid Response Team experienced in 2023. The team saw 357 patients, conducted 712 home visits, and saw 179 substance use disorder cases and 24 overdose deaths, three of which were alcohol-related.
“Some of the new drugs that have come out can’t even be tested for,” Dunn said. “Fentanyl is still on the front lines of overdoses. There’s fentanyl in basically everything. It’s in e-cigarette pens. Teens and even adults think fentanyl is safe because it’s made in a factory, but they don’t know it’s been altered.”
Counterfeit medicines are particularly dangerous, he explained.
“Pill machines are easily purchased online,” Dan says. “They are made in basements and bedrooms. They look the same as prescription drugs, but they have different ingredients.”
2023 was the first year Boyle County EMS began tracking the mental health issues it responds to.
“In 2023, we had 10 deaths by suicide. Eight of those were from gunshots. That’s almost one a month. That’s too many,” Dunn said. “There is some good news. If you look at the data as it stands now for 2023 and 2024, we have 36 drug abuse cases compared to 69 last year. That’s a significant decrease. There were 39 overdoses, and now there are 23. There were 12 overdose deaths at this time, and today there are three. That’s a dramatic difference.”
He said there were 71 cases of mental illness at this time this year, but in 2023 there were 43.
“One of the biggest mental health issues we see in the county is anxiety,” Dunn said. “We have cases where we’re dealing with patients with chest pain, but when you look at their vital signs they’re fine. Anxiety becomes physical and they have physical symptoms.”
Dunn explained that when EMS responds to a mental health crisis call, it’s crucial to build trust with the patient.
“This job requires compassion and exposure to people who suffer from mental illness,” Dan says. “They don’t trust easily, especially with outsiders. Sometimes you might need to make multiple visits, coming back multiple times and calling to check in.”
Dunn hopes Boyle County EMS’ mental health program will be a successful model that can be implemented in other communities.
“We want to make this a national trend,” Dunn said. “We want to bring this program to every community in the state. We hope to continue this work. We’re just getting started.”
Editor’s note: May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Ephraim McDowell Health hosted a symposium on the topic. This is the first of three articles about what was discussed at the symposium.
