Common Psychological Interventions

A paramedic is defined as a health professional who provides rapid response emergency medical assessment, treatment and care in an out-of-hospital setting. It has been reported that in Australia paramedics attend more than 1.3 million call-outs each year (Productivity Commission, 2018), of which 20% are for mental-health-related presentations (e.g. anxiety, depression and/or psychosis) with the most common being anxiety related (Beyond Blue, 2019). A paramedic's role in supporting people experiencing mental health issues requires complex abilities around negotiation, communication and advanced knowledge to make critical decisions (Paramedics Australasia [PA], 2016). In line with this, a recent study by Beyond Blue (2019) indicated that paramedics desired more training to support patients in ways other than transporting them to the emergency department (ED), but two out of three felt unprepared to use communication skills in place of transport to the ED (Beyond Blue, 2019).