The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to ‘social distancing’, with intermittent lockdowns of schools, businesses and sites of entertainment and measures to maintain a manageable flow of patients through acute hospitals. The initial reduction of referrals to mental health services due to restricted primary care access has allowed alterations in work practices in mental health services to accommodate social distancing. This has involved a move to contacting patients using remote consultations, via a combination of telephone and video contacts.
However, with improved access to primary care, a surge in mental health referrals is anticipated. There is already evidence of a return to previous levels of emergency department activity and admissions under the Mental Health Act 1983. Furthermore, individuals with previously undisclosed trauma, especially staff from care homes and acute hospitals, are presenting more frequently with ‘moral injury’. Referrals relating to neuropsychiatric sequelae following COVID-19, including the syndrome now called ‘long COVID’, are emerging.
This Quickbite module aims to critically review triage systems currently being piloted.
We are pleased to offer this module free for those without a paid subscription. If you are a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, you can log in straight away using the same username and password with which you access the members' area of the College website. Otherwise, all you need to do is register with the College.
