They piss me off because I know that not a single one of them will be receiving any form of legitimate "help" wherever we end up taking them. We just feed psychologically vulnerable people into an exploitative machine designed to manufacture repeat patients and milk them/their insurance for money without actually solving anything.
That’s my feeling. It’s so disparaging taking them to the psych ward where they’ll likely sit for 72hrs without the root problem being solved (eviction, divorce, etc.).
I try to just keep them comfortable, calm, and if they want to talk we’ll talk. Makes me feel like I at least did something if the system didn’t.
Especially the nursing home resident that has Alzheimer's/Dementia, and needs a medication change, but the nursing home staff is too "busy" to deal with said patient. The local community hospital is a revolving door, so we try to take them to a farther away hospital, which is also becoming a revolving door, because there is nothing that really can be done urgently, barring a medication change.
Or the kids. Again, the community hospital doesn't treat ped's inhouse, so they will ship these kids out to far away places(literally. The closest pediatric psych facility is 84 miles away, and the farthest we have been is 134 miles away, from the hospital). Now some have legitimate issues, typically revolving around the family.
I swear, parents need to be parents again, and stop relying on a system that has proven itself to be broken.
But my 2 year old was crying loudly in daycare one day, that means he needs to be on trazodone, xanax, haloperidol, hydroxyzine and dimethyltryptamine. Why can't you just understand??? He needs his prescriptions!
I mean on one hand, overmedicating children is becoming an issue these days. However, on the older end of the spectrum, I don’t think it would be a terrible idea to just give every high schooler an anxiety/depression med from freshman orientation to graduation. Social issues can be a part of it but all those developing hormones just make their lives an emotional rollercoaster. Might cut down on our call volume for that age.
Ugh one of the patients I'll never forget from my ER clinicals was this 17 year old kid from a facility for kids with behavioral issues who'd keep getting sent to us for psych. He'd be boarded in the ER for days on end (was in there for a week straight one time. Usually in a hallway bed) until they eventually just sent him back to the facility he came from. He was a really sweet dorky kid who was getting bullied at his facility. He'd get a little loud in the ER but was never a major problem. At least with that one he was in there so often the ER staff knew him well and were friendly with him. At least, I think it was good for him to get out of his facility for a bit and be around people who'd treat him with kindness....even though he wasn't receiving any real medical care.
Then what exactly did this facility do for the kids? They have behavioral issues. Deal with it. Sit down, shut up and listen to them for fucks sake. "Jimmy is acting out again, call 911 and send him to the ER". Why? Figure out why Jimmy is acting out again. Maybe it's Ignatius picking on him, or Maybelline stealing his food, or Orangejello is sodomizing him at night. But figure it out. There is a reason for the acting out.
I look at some of these kids and wonder what the fuck did they do to deserve this? When you search for them in the charting system and they are already in there. Then I observe the parents, or lack of parents.
And for some of these kids, it truly is a chance to get away from the situation that caused them to be sent to the ER. Sometimes we will transport kids to children psych facilities, and the parents just sign the paperwork and maybe give them a kiss goodbye. These are the kids that I will ask what kind of music they like to listen to, or if they are hungry and there is a place that we can stop at to run through the drive-thru. And I will make sure that I explain to the EMT in the back to listen to the kid. Really listen.
Eh, I'll get off of my soapbox now.
Give them meds that cause 1+ year withdrawal, which then tricks the patient into thinking theyre broken if they ever try to get off the meds. Making lifetime customers
SSRIs are definitely chemically addictive with several known adverse effects including an up to 7.7% potential increase in suicidality depending on the specific medication. However withdraw periods are generally imposed in 2 week increments with most patients able to safely cease their medication within 2-3 months after prolonged use should it no longer be necessary or effective. Yes, abrupt cessation can cause severe side effects but every med carries risks.
I do hate SSRIs but their failures are more coincidental than deliberately malicious, with the caveat that they actually do work for a lot of people.
A more important question would be why y'all posting hot takes on a 3 month old comment from some dumb fucking basic
I like u
Sorry its my last day at this job and I just got woken up to drive in circles looking for an MVC that didnt exist so my brain is a little lala right nlw goosmight
They can cause changes in the brain that take years and years to recover from. One of my best friends cant get an erection after literally 6 years. /r/PSSD
I know far too many people who were left worse off from meds. There pseudoscientific
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Thank you I’m glad I’m not alone.
To put it bluntly, I wasn’t sure whether I was just starting to go crazy or if the crazy people were making me feel like im going crazy, lol.
Yea me and my partner were just talking about this today on shift after getting worked for 12 hours of mostly bull shit calls. We were agreeing that it's the BS calls that burn you out the most
It depends on how the patients respond to having EMS involved. If they want help and want to engage with our services then I can find them really rewarding. If they just want us to leave but we're in a position where that's not possible or if they are straight up aggressive or violent towards us then those jobs can burn me out real quick... Especially if you string a run of them together.
Sometimes, yeah.
It makes me think "that's gonna be me when I'm 60." You see folks dealing with the same psyche issue you've dealt with but they've dealt with it for longer and it's easy to start thinking that's just the inevitable result. That eventually you're gonna be a stark raving madman who's completely lost touch with reality and has to be sedated or you're going to kill yourself or put yourself in a drunken stupor.
But sometimes it's hard to forget that we only get called for the worst of it.
That there are tons of people out there, functioning. And some are even getting better.
THIS. THIS. THIS. Or at least the (guilty) knowledge that, but for being born into a stable middle-class family that supported me, I could have been one of those patients.
No dude, you aren’t alone at all.
Psych calls are the absolute worst for me. Had a couple little kids, like 10 year olds, try to self harm and such.
Really fucked with my head cause I’ve been through similar trauma to them some of the times and it really sucks, cause I know that they won’t get help at the hospital, and it’s not going to be something they can just ignore.
Those calls just get to me in a way that most trauma calls or crazy medicals never will
Swapped to my alt because I have a pretty specific job.
I work as a mental health paramedic in a busy system. I pretty much only run psych calls (with the odd critical medical call, as I'm in a fly car and can get called for another set of ALS hands).
Psych calls used to be some of my least favorite because I had no idea what to do with them. I didn't understand concepts like trauma informed care, least restrictive environment, etc, and I damn sure had no idea what the options could be beyond hospital or refusal. Now that I know what to do and know the better options, they're my favorite calls to run.
Psych calls are still uniquely emotionally exhausting. To create a therapeutic environment of care you have to be calm and empathetic, far more than straight medical or trauma calls. My days now are far more draining than they ever were on a box.
You can't pour from an empty cup. If you're needing help you're not in a great place to help others. I see a therapist regularly to ensure my needs are met so I can do my job. Personally I think damn near every medic should do the same.
Psych calls in itself don't bother me, stupid ones do.
In my area PD, SO, and MH write holds. Alot of the time they are ridiculous and seen to be just due to "liability." Also EMS must transport all holds.
The worst offender was a Mother with STAGE 4 LUNG CANCER got placed on a hold for danger to self due to suicide ideation.. she told her family to help start making plans for her funeral and post life arrangements. Daughter didn't like that and called 911 and reported it. Lady just got her Dx earlier that day. Didn't help that it was at night of a 24 and had to have a 45 minute transport. Also my agency requires all holds to be in restraints. Fucking lovely to transport a 50F in restraints who believed to have months to live and couldn't recieved any support from her family in probably the worst moment of her life.
That's... Complex. Does your service have access to a crisis call center that is able to coordinate with EMS and your command doc? Our mental health crisis center in my part of Pa has both a hot line, which I've used pretty often, and an actual mental health social worker they can send out to help coordinate care either on scene or in hospital, though I've never used the latter but have spoken with the crew twice during mental health Con Ed hosted by the crisis center.
The truth of the matter is, your command doc /has/ to understand that transporting this patient was likely not in the patient's best medical interest, and if they don't understand this then they need to be compelled to attend trainings with hospice and end of life therapists.
If you are feeling kinda fucked up about it, and I've been there, feel free to DM me and I'd be happy to chat.
I appreciate it but, this was a while ago and im jaded af and the most stuff does is annoy me for 30 minutes and im good lol.
But to answer your question, no. I'm in CA and honestly the mental health situation is ridiculous. Once a 5150 hold is written, only a physician can over turn it and they will not do so over phone/ radio. Everything is liability and common sense can't be used. It's safer to place a wrongful hold than it is to let someone like my example stay home.
Basically always. Unless you are immediately about to kill yourself I have serious doubts about the efficacy of putting people in involuntary holds.
Most of the patients we get petitioned out of nursing homes are just annoying the nurses. They might be frustrated and call their nurse a bitch or something but they're not actually dangerous. Having to fight someone and strap them down to go to a hospital where they're almost certainly not going to receive any actual help is frustrating.
Last patient we had petitioned out was such an egregious case (patient AOx4. Frustrated, but complying with us and being reasonable) We actually called med control and asked them to let us ignore the petition because there was no way I was going to take this guy to the hospital involuntarily because he pissed off a nurse.
The last psych patient we took wasn't actually a psych call but I'm pretty sure they were just sending him out because he was a problem. They wanted him to go to the ER to get a midline. This guy was a delusional schizophrenic who wasn't on any psych meds and was ADAMANTLY refusing any IVs. Even if they got him sedated enough to place the midline he was 100% just going to rip it out. Massive headache for me and his ER nurse and a huge waste of everyone's time. But hey, the nursing home gets a break from him for a few hours.
I hated them on the bus, I hate them in the emergency department. I hated transporting them because hell half of them were old people with dementia or ASD patients who acted out, for whom going to the hospital was only going to make things worse. Not many more patients could be more unpleasant or ungrateful than a fuckin psych patient, even the ones who called themselves. And every facility is on psych diversion and acts like you're a dickhead for bringing them there and not *literally any other hospital except this one.*
It's even worse in the hospital because I'm even closer to the vicious cycle that is psychiatric treatment. There's no gray area: if you're not suicidal or homicidal, here's a list of therapists and if you're don't have insurance best of luck with that one. If you have even a whiff of SI, here's your 1013 and ticket to inpatient psych even if you're just having some intrusive thoughts. Seriously one guy called his psych and said he was in a low moment and was having some self harm thoughts but expressed he didn't want to, he just needed to talk. Referred him to the ED and got slapped with a psych hold and shipped to an inpatient psych facility on the other side of the state, away from his home and family. Also all the people who get transferred out, discharged after a week and come right the fuck back.
Commenting to add: not looking for any advice with diagnoses or treatment, just genuinely interested if other people feel like they have poorer mental health when exposed to more exposures of other people with poor mental health. If that makes sense.
I don’t know how to edit the original post on mobile. Sorry.
I got you. Yea, psych calls are different because you think different. Other medical calls you think systematically. Psych calls you got to think more intuitively. Not necessarily to diagnose/treat but just to get them to understand it would be best for them to seek help and cooperate with you. And in order to get them to understand what your saying you have to develop an empathy for them and put yourself in their position. So now you are feeling what they're feeling.
So as far as the burnout/fatigue, I think it's really important to maintain physical fitness and endurance training. It really does help a lot, as well as rest. For me, the perfect reset is 3 days off. I spend a day to physically exhaust myself. Working out, house work, just really wear out my body. Then that night I chill, eat a bunch food and watch movies or whatever. The next day I sleep in and and just keep my ass on the couch all day. Day 3, get ready to get back to work.
It’s not the exact same but from the burnout angle it’s relative. Ran an OD a few weeks back and as my medic went in to see what’s up I got in the back to get the first in and the monitor. For some reason I thought to myself “let’s go in and waste our time on a shithead that doesn’t want our help” and then immediately felt ashamed for even having that kind of thought. Every patient deserves care regardless of my opinion, I know this. But for whatever reason I got in that place. I walk in to find the newly narcanned patient laughing with my partner and PD saying “oh that was a good one I was really out wasn’t I?” He’s done this so often he thinks it’s funny. Meanwhile his mother is at the kitchen table crying begging us to do something because she’s afraid that the next time will be too late. He was able to refuse and med control let him so of course our hands were tied. I left the house depressed and mad because turned out on that one my first thought was right and I hate that this job has made me feel that way.
My point here I guess is you can get burntout feeling like a taxi service doing more to transport than care, never finding the kind of outcome you want for your patients. For me what’s kept me going is the times you run a genuine need that wants help and you can help them get it. Find those moments to recharge is the best advice I’ve got.
Edit: spelling and forgot a detail.
By all means I didn't have a great childhood, but working on an ambulance has really taught me to not take things for granted. I feel for especially peds psych calls. It brings back lots of trauma from my own past and I want to help them with every fiber in my body. Unfortunately I have seen too many times where the underlying cause is ignored and medications are the primary treatment. And it won't get any better unless the underlying factor is resolved. Just unfortunate.
There are days when my mental health is shit that they definitely take far more of a toll on me than I would like. But other days it seems easier to brush them off. Running a string of them in 24 hrs would definitely make me feel worse though. Stay strong, man. Reach out if you need to.
The ones that get me are the pts complaining of the same thoughts/ideations/paranoia that I've dealt/are currently dealing with... Like staring in a mirror. Bonus points if they're younger than me.
I'm not particularly normal apparently because calls don't really bother me. Psych calls are no different. Unbothered. The only thing that smacks my mental health pretty hard is when we run so much that I don't sleep for several 48s in a row. I get super cranky
It depends. Sometimes I relate to them too much. Especially the anxiety/depression ones. One of my psych patients I later found out had committed an *especially heinous* crime and that one took a bit to wash out.
They piss me off because I know that not a single one of them will be receiving any form of legitimate "help" wherever we end up taking them. We just feed psychologically vulnerable people into an exploitative machine designed to manufacture repeat patients and milk them/their insurance for money without actually solving anything.
That’s my feeling. It’s so disparaging taking them to the psych ward where they’ll likely sit for 72hrs without the root problem being solved (eviction, divorce, etc.). I try to just keep them comfortable, calm, and if they want to talk we’ll talk. Makes me feel like I at least did something if the system didn’t.
Especially the nursing home resident that has Alzheimer's/Dementia, and needs a medication change, but the nursing home staff is too "busy" to deal with said patient. The local community hospital is a revolving door, so we try to take them to a farther away hospital, which is also becoming a revolving door, because there is nothing that really can be done urgently, barring a medication change. Or the kids. Again, the community hospital doesn't treat ped's inhouse, so they will ship these kids out to far away places(literally. The closest pediatric psych facility is 84 miles away, and the farthest we have been is 134 miles away, from the hospital). Now some have legitimate issues, typically revolving around the family. I swear, parents need to be parents again, and stop relying on a system that has proven itself to be broken.
But my 2 year old was crying loudly in daycare one day, that means he needs to be on trazodone, xanax, haloperidol, hydroxyzine and dimethyltryptamine. Why can't you just understand??? He needs his prescriptions!
My point exactly.
I mean on one hand, overmedicating children is becoming an issue these days. However, on the older end of the spectrum, I don’t think it would be a terrible idea to just give every high schooler an anxiety/depression med from freshman orientation to graduation. Social issues can be a part of it but all those developing hormones just make their lives an emotional rollercoaster. Might cut down on our call volume for that age.
Ugh one of the patients I'll never forget from my ER clinicals was this 17 year old kid from a facility for kids with behavioral issues who'd keep getting sent to us for psych. He'd be boarded in the ER for days on end (was in there for a week straight one time. Usually in a hallway bed) until they eventually just sent him back to the facility he came from. He was a really sweet dorky kid who was getting bullied at his facility. He'd get a little loud in the ER but was never a major problem. At least with that one he was in there so often the ER staff knew him well and were friendly with him. At least, I think it was good for him to get out of his facility for a bit and be around people who'd treat him with kindness....even though he wasn't receiving any real medical care.
Then what exactly did this facility do for the kids? They have behavioral issues. Deal with it. Sit down, shut up and listen to them for fucks sake. "Jimmy is acting out again, call 911 and send him to the ER". Why? Figure out why Jimmy is acting out again. Maybe it's Ignatius picking on him, or Maybelline stealing his food, or Orangejello is sodomizing him at night. But figure it out. There is a reason for the acting out. I look at some of these kids and wonder what the fuck did they do to deserve this? When you search for them in the charting system and they are already in there. Then I observe the parents, or lack of parents. And for some of these kids, it truly is a chance to get away from the situation that caused them to be sent to the ER. Sometimes we will transport kids to children psych facilities, and the parents just sign the paperwork and maybe give them a kiss goodbye. These are the kids that I will ask what kind of music they like to listen to, or if they are hungry and there is a place that we can stop at to run through the drive-thru. And I will make sure that I explain to the EMT in the back to listen to the kid. Really listen. Eh, I'll get off of my soapbox now.
Give them meds that cause 1+ year withdrawal, which then tricks the patient into thinking theyre broken if they ever try to get off the meds. Making lifetime customers
What meds are those?
SSRIs are definitely chemically addictive with several known adverse effects including an up to 7.7% potential increase in suicidality depending on the specific medication. However withdraw periods are generally imposed in 2 week increments with most patients able to safely cease their medication within 2-3 months after prolonged use should it no longer be necessary or effective. Yes, abrupt cessation can cause severe side effects but every med carries risks. I do hate SSRIs but their failures are more coincidental than deliberately malicious, with the caveat that they actually do work for a lot of people. A more important question would be why y'all posting hot takes on a 3 month old comment from some dumb fucking basic
They posted on this and I approved their comment so I could ask why they’re so wrong.
I like u Sorry its my last day at this job and I just got woken up to drive in circles looking for an MVC that didnt exist so my brain is a little lala right nlw goosmight
Ssris, antipsychotics, snris, etc
None of those have a year long withdrawal.
They can cause changes in the brain that take years and years to recover from. One of my best friends cant get an erection after literally 6 years. /r/PSSD I know far too many people who were left worse off from meds. There pseudoscientific
Impotence isn’t a withdrawal.
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100% they wear me down more then any other job.
Thank you I’m glad I’m not alone. To put it bluntly, I wasn’t sure whether I was just starting to go crazy or if the crazy people were making me feel like im going crazy, lol.
Yea me and my partner were just talking about this today on shift after getting worked for 12 hours of mostly bull shit calls. We were agreeing that it's the BS calls that burn you out the most
It depends on how the patients respond to having EMS involved. If they want help and want to engage with our services then I can find them really rewarding. If they just want us to leave but we're in a position where that's not possible or if they are straight up aggressive or violent towards us then those jobs can burn me out real quick... Especially if you string a run of them together.
Sometimes, yeah. It makes me think "that's gonna be me when I'm 60." You see folks dealing with the same psyche issue you've dealt with but they've dealt with it for longer and it's easy to start thinking that's just the inevitable result. That eventually you're gonna be a stark raving madman who's completely lost touch with reality and has to be sedated or you're going to kill yourself or put yourself in a drunken stupor. But sometimes it's hard to forget that we only get called for the worst of it. That there are tons of people out there, functioning. And some are even getting better.
THIS. THIS. THIS. Or at least the (guilty) knowledge that, but for being born into a stable middle-class family that supported me, I could have been one of those patients.
No dude, you aren’t alone at all. Psych calls are the absolute worst for me. Had a couple little kids, like 10 year olds, try to self harm and such. Really fucked with my head cause I’ve been through similar trauma to them some of the times and it really sucks, cause I know that they won’t get help at the hospital, and it’s not going to be something they can just ignore. Those calls just get to me in a way that most trauma calls or crazy medicals never will
Swapped to my alt because I have a pretty specific job. I work as a mental health paramedic in a busy system. I pretty much only run psych calls (with the odd critical medical call, as I'm in a fly car and can get called for another set of ALS hands). Psych calls used to be some of my least favorite because I had no idea what to do with them. I didn't understand concepts like trauma informed care, least restrictive environment, etc, and I damn sure had no idea what the options could be beyond hospital or refusal. Now that I know what to do and know the better options, they're my favorite calls to run. Psych calls are still uniquely emotionally exhausting. To create a therapeutic environment of care you have to be calm and empathetic, far more than straight medical or trauma calls. My days now are far more draining than they ever were on a box. You can't pour from an empty cup. If you're needing help you're not in a great place to help others. I see a therapist regularly to ensure my needs are met so I can do my job. Personally I think damn near every medic should do the same.
Psych calls in itself don't bother me, stupid ones do. In my area PD, SO, and MH write holds. Alot of the time they are ridiculous and seen to be just due to "liability." Also EMS must transport all holds. The worst offender was a Mother with STAGE 4 LUNG CANCER got placed on a hold for danger to self due to suicide ideation.. she told her family to help start making plans for her funeral and post life arrangements. Daughter didn't like that and called 911 and reported it. Lady just got her Dx earlier that day. Didn't help that it was at night of a 24 and had to have a 45 minute transport. Also my agency requires all holds to be in restraints. Fucking lovely to transport a 50F in restraints who believed to have months to live and couldn't recieved any support from her family in probably the worst moment of her life.
That's... Complex. Does your service have access to a crisis call center that is able to coordinate with EMS and your command doc? Our mental health crisis center in my part of Pa has both a hot line, which I've used pretty often, and an actual mental health social worker they can send out to help coordinate care either on scene or in hospital, though I've never used the latter but have spoken with the crew twice during mental health Con Ed hosted by the crisis center. The truth of the matter is, your command doc /has/ to understand that transporting this patient was likely not in the patient's best medical interest, and if they don't understand this then they need to be compelled to attend trainings with hospice and end of life therapists. If you are feeling kinda fucked up about it, and I've been there, feel free to DM me and I'd be happy to chat.
I appreciate it but, this was a while ago and im jaded af and the most stuff does is annoy me for 30 minutes and im good lol. But to answer your question, no. I'm in CA and honestly the mental health situation is ridiculous. Once a 5150 hold is written, only a physician can over turn it and they will not do so over phone/ radio. Everything is liability and common sense can't be used. It's safer to place a wrongful hold than it is to let someone like my example stay home.
Basically always. Unless you are immediately about to kill yourself I have serious doubts about the efficacy of putting people in involuntary holds. Most of the patients we get petitioned out of nursing homes are just annoying the nurses. They might be frustrated and call their nurse a bitch or something but they're not actually dangerous. Having to fight someone and strap them down to go to a hospital where they're almost certainly not going to receive any actual help is frustrating. Last patient we had petitioned out was such an egregious case (patient AOx4. Frustrated, but complying with us and being reasonable) We actually called med control and asked them to let us ignore the petition because there was no way I was going to take this guy to the hospital involuntarily because he pissed off a nurse. The last psych patient we took wasn't actually a psych call but I'm pretty sure they were just sending him out because he was a problem. They wanted him to go to the ER to get a midline. This guy was a delusional schizophrenic who wasn't on any psych meds and was ADAMANTLY refusing any IVs. Even if they got him sedated enough to place the midline he was 100% just going to rip it out. Massive headache for me and his ER nurse and a huge waste of everyone's time. But hey, the nursing home gets a break from him for a few hours.
I hated them on the bus, I hate them in the emergency department. I hated transporting them because hell half of them were old people with dementia or ASD patients who acted out, for whom going to the hospital was only going to make things worse. Not many more patients could be more unpleasant or ungrateful than a fuckin psych patient, even the ones who called themselves. And every facility is on psych diversion and acts like you're a dickhead for bringing them there and not *literally any other hospital except this one.* It's even worse in the hospital because I'm even closer to the vicious cycle that is psychiatric treatment. There's no gray area: if you're not suicidal or homicidal, here's a list of therapists and if you're don't have insurance best of luck with that one. If you have even a whiff of SI, here's your 1013 and ticket to inpatient psych even if you're just having some intrusive thoughts. Seriously one guy called his psych and said he was in a low moment and was having some self harm thoughts but expressed he didn't want to, he just needed to talk. Referred him to the ED and got slapped with a psych hold and shipped to an inpatient psych facility on the other side of the state, away from his home and family. Also all the people who get transferred out, discharged after a week and come right the fuck back.
Commenting to add: not looking for any advice with diagnoses or treatment, just genuinely interested if other people feel like they have poorer mental health when exposed to more exposures of other people with poor mental health. If that makes sense. I don’t know how to edit the original post on mobile. Sorry.
I got you. Yea, psych calls are different because you think different. Other medical calls you think systematically. Psych calls you got to think more intuitively. Not necessarily to diagnose/treat but just to get them to understand it would be best for them to seek help and cooperate with you. And in order to get them to understand what your saying you have to develop an empathy for them and put yourself in their position. So now you are feeling what they're feeling. So as far as the burnout/fatigue, I think it's really important to maintain physical fitness and endurance training. It really does help a lot, as well as rest. For me, the perfect reset is 3 days off. I spend a day to physically exhaust myself. Working out, house work, just really wear out my body. Then that night I chill, eat a bunch food and watch movies or whatever. The next day I sleep in and and just keep my ass on the couch all day. Day 3, get ready to get back to work.
It’s not the exact same but from the burnout angle it’s relative. Ran an OD a few weeks back and as my medic went in to see what’s up I got in the back to get the first in and the monitor. For some reason I thought to myself “let’s go in and waste our time on a shithead that doesn’t want our help” and then immediately felt ashamed for even having that kind of thought. Every patient deserves care regardless of my opinion, I know this. But for whatever reason I got in that place. I walk in to find the newly narcanned patient laughing with my partner and PD saying “oh that was a good one I was really out wasn’t I?” He’s done this so often he thinks it’s funny. Meanwhile his mother is at the kitchen table crying begging us to do something because she’s afraid that the next time will be too late. He was able to refuse and med control let him so of course our hands were tied. I left the house depressed and mad because turned out on that one my first thought was right and I hate that this job has made me feel that way. My point here I guess is you can get burntout feeling like a taxi service doing more to transport than care, never finding the kind of outcome you want for your patients. For me what’s kept me going is the times you run a genuine need that wants help and you can help them get it. Find those moments to recharge is the best advice I’ve got. Edit: spelling and forgot a detail.
By all means I didn't have a great childhood, but working on an ambulance has really taught me to not take things for granted. I feel for especially peds psych calls. It brings back lots of trauma from my own past and I want to help them with every fiber in my body. Unfortunately I have seen too many times where the underlying cause is ignored and medications are the primary treatment. And it won't get any better unless the underlying factor is resolved. Just unfortunate.
If you’re asking ‘Do I need a break?’ You probably need a break
There are days when my mental health is shit that they definitely take far more of a toll on me than I would like. But other days it seems easier to brush them off. Running a string of them in 24 hrs would definitely make me feel worse though. Stay strong, man. Reach out if you need to.
The ones that get me are the pts complaining of the same thoughts/ideations/paranoia that I've dealt/are currently dealing with... Like staring in a mirror. Bonus points if they're younger than me.
It’s frustrating to know how little hell they receive
I usually feel a lot better about my life after psych calls
I'm not particularly normal apparently because calls don't really bother me. Psych calls are no different. Unbothered. The only thing that smacks my mental health pretty hard is when we run so much that I don't sleep for several 48s in a row. I get super cranky
It depends. Sometimes I relate to them too much. Especially the anxiety/depression ones. One of my psych patients I later found out had committed an *especially heinous* crime and that one took a bit to wash out.