{"id":349668,"date":"2025-12-15T07:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T07:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/349668\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T07:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T07:24:12","slug":"cambridgeshire-has-new-emergency-vehicle-for-mental-health-calls-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/349668\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambridgeshire has new emergency vehicle for mental health calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EastEast of England Ambulance Service<\/p>\n

The response team can treat and support people having a mental health crisis in their own environment <\/p>\n

Am emergency vehicle dedicated to mental health services has been launched by the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS).<\/p>\n

The car is crewed by a paramedic from the NHS ambulance trust and a specialist mental health nurse from Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), which provides mental health services.<\/p>\n

When a 999 call is received related to mental health it is passed to the specialist crew, which operate every day from midday to midnight.<\/p>\n

Carolyne Coenen, from CPFT’s First Response Service, said: “A&E is not the appropriate place for somebody who is going through mental health crisis, I think it is important that people are treated in the comfort of their own environment.”<\/p>\n

She described the vehicle as a “mini ambulance car” that is not marked, but still can use a blue light.<\/p>\n

After three months the use of the vehicle will be reviewed to see if the number of cars needs to be increased.<\/p>\n

The project is funded jointly by Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care Board and EEAS which also serves Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.<\/p>\n

The EEAS has introduced similar initiatives in Suffolk<\/a>, Norfolk <\/a>& Essex and Hertfordshire<\/a> in the last year.<\/p>\n

Liz Ip Piang Siong, the ambulance service’s regional head of mental health, said she was “thrilled” to introduce a joint response vehicle.<\/p>\n

She added: “Sadly during the winter months, we do typically see an increase in mental health-related 999 calls, so having this team on the road will allow us to provide the specialist support people need and avoid unnecessary journeys to hospital.”<\/p>\n

‘Noisy and bright’<\/p>\n

Ms Coenen explained that in winter months there can be an increase in mental health crisis due to seasonal pressures and darkness.<\/p>\n

“That’s why it is important for us to respond rapidly to be able to support these people and signpost them to the right services as soon as possible,” she said.<\/p>\n

“With all this flu and all the winter pressures A&E can be very noisy, bright, and there are lots of stimulants \u2014 it’s not an appropriate place to triage people who are facing high levels of stress and anxiety.<\/p>\n

“Therefore it’s important for the car to be able to respond rapidly, right time, right place, to be able to meet their needs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East of England Ambulance Service The response team can treat and support people having a mental health crisis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-349668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}