In the past when a person experiencing mental health issues needed to transfer between facilities, he or she often rode in a police car or ambulance.
Leaders at Life EMS Ambulance and Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services decided there must be a better alternative.
“We’re transporting these patients often not just from Grand Rapids hospitals to local folks like Pine Rest and Forest View but to Detroit, northern Indiana, Chicago. So you can imagine riding in an ambulance on a stretcher when you don't think you need that for three hours is not the most pleasant thing in the world.”
Life EMS President Mark Meijer says the service now operates ten custom-designed SUVs modified specifically for transporting behavioral health clients.
Clinically appropriate transport that’s yielding positive results, according to staff at area behavioral health hospitals.
“These folks are arriving for treatment in a much better frame of mind, calmer. It speeds up the admission process because they aren't having to help them think through the three hours they spent in the back of an ambulance, so really it's had a positive impact on the folks that we serve.”
Drivers are Life EMS behavioral health specialists trained in part by Pine Rest experts on de-escalation.
Meijer says the need for such transportation is growing; in just over two years, they’ve transported more than 7,000 people in the program.
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