The characteristics and outcomes of mental health patients presenting to an emergency department over a twelve month period

Abstract

The number of mental health consumers presenting to the emergency department (ED) over the last five years has been increasing because of mainstreaming. The aims of this paper are to: (i) describe the characteristics of mental health patient presentations to our ED; (ii) examine the distribution of triage code allocations; and (iii) identify the outcomes of ED mental health patients.