Emergency departments are facing increasing pressure from patients with mental health concerns, the AMA WA has warned.
Mental health presentations in EDs have risen almost 250% in the last 20 years, according to the AMA’s 2024 public hospital report card’s mental health edition.
West Australians with a mental health concern are presenting to public hospital EDs at the third highest rate in the country.
Despite falling for the past three years, the per-person rate of mental health presentations to WA EDs is now 125 per 10,000 people, compared to 50.7 in 2004-5. About 70% of those are triaged as emergencies or urgent.
While WA has increased the number of specialised mental health public hospital beds, up from 670 in 2007-08 to 799 in 2021-22, the AMA said this has not kept pace with the increasing population.
The number of mental health beds available per 100,000 West Australians has fallen from 30.9 to 28.6 over the same period.
The AMA said these figures signal a “concerning” rise in unmet mental health needs in the state and highlight a need for investment in the mental health public hospital system.
Improvement in clinical outcomes was also found to be one of the lowest results in 15 years. Some 70% of mental health inpatients in WA saw a significant improvement to their clinical outcome because of their treatment stands compared to 75.4% in 2007/08.
AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen said the solution to the growing mental health burden on hospitals was adding additional resourcing and real reform to the delivery and availability of mental health support at all levels.
“Without this, we will continue to see the figures in this report card get worse and medical and health staff leaving the profession due to burnout and stress,” she said.
“We need all levels of government to work cooperatively to address the current situation and ensure people have access to care.”
Mental Health Commissioner Maureen Lewis said EDs were not always the best place for people with mental health issues.
“We have allocated more than $1.4 billion in the 2024-25 financial year for services and initiatives that aim to help people experiencing a mental health crisis, and their families, to avoid hospital EDs wherever possible,” she said.
Several initiatives are run across the State to support people experiencing mental health crises and alleviate pressure on emergency departments, including the WA Virtual Emergency Department which allows patients to be assessed via telehealth and connected with the care they need at home.
More than 100 new mental health hospital beds are expected to be delivered in the next three years.
About $522 million was allocated for hospital bed-based mental health services in the 2024-25 State budget.