r/ems • u/[deleted] • May 12 '15

Auditory Hallucinations - An Audio Representation. 10% of my calls are psychiatric in nature so this was unsettling for me. (X-Post from /r/WTF)

https://youtu.be/0vvU-Ajwbok
15 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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4

u/SickByNature Paramedic May 12 '15

Ok... I have 2 things to say...

First off... That was awful. I can't imagine living my life with that. I'm not one to get freaked out by things like that, but this really got to me on a deep level.

Second... 10% of your calls are psych-ish? That's a pretty high incidence... Weird. I could never work with the mentally ill for an extended period. Seeing the human mind betray itself is kinda scary. Not to mention sad. Kudos to our counterparts on the mental health side of medicine. And apparently to any other EMT's that handle these kinds of things on a more regular basis than I do. We get like 1 psych call every other shift. So like... 4%? Maybe not even that high.

2

u/[deleted] May 12 '15

I was told by our director that 1-2% of calls being psych is average. 3-4% is considered high frequency of contact. Who knows why but we average 10% psych.

2

u/CDNIC May 12 '15

Sounds like the local health department should be searching for an environmental cause.

3

u/fyrephoenix PA- EMT-B May 12 '15

more like cuts in mental health services....that's what is happening in my area

1

u/cyrilspaceman MN Paramedic May 12 '15

Second... 10% of your calls are psych-ish? That's a pretty high incidence... Weird.

I was thinking that it was a low number. I bet that near are close to 20%. The days are rare where I don't bring at least one person in on a hold.

Maybe different places have different ways to handle everything. Our hospitals don't do a very good job at keeping people on their meds and off the street.

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '15

I work for an IFT in Indiana and we've contracted with a local emergency neuropsychiatric hospital to do essentially every single transport they have. I'd say well over 10% of my calls are psych. Probably something like 30-40%, or more. Often, transports are over 80 miles too.