A change in the behavior, more relatively a disturbance in behavior or the patient’s mood when it causes harm if left without any proper treatment, is known as a psychiatric emergency.
When an individual goes through an illness, especially the chronic illness, in such a case, it is not just the particular part of the organ which gets affected. This is the time when the patient goes through a serious mental breakdown.
Everything in the brain goes haywire, and during this time the patient finds it hard to actually take full control of themselves since their mind is not really at the right place, which is a very unhealthy sign.
The situation, when ignored or not appropriately treated, causes severe injury to the patient along with the others in that similar environment. It is slightly different from the other forms of medical emergencies because it carries damage to society.
These psychiatric emergencies have several forms, where either the danger is on the patient or the others around them. The threat doesn’t encompass loss of life but causes severe incapacitation.
Shapes Of Psychiatric Emergencies
The psychiatrist’s emergencies may have several forms, from severe to mild, depending on the severity of the mental health issue. The psychiatrist emergency may look like:
Risk of Harming Self:
Psychiatric emergencies may arrive in the shape of self-harm or suicide. Many studies show that the suicide rate is highest among the age group of 15-30 years. In most cases, the attempters have tried contacting their families, close ones, or their psychiatrist about the want of attempting suicide.
Violent Patients:
Often in the emergency room of the psychiatric emergency, the danger faced is violence. The internet makes it easy to access firearms or drugs, so the risk of violence is higher. The usage of these items increases the risk of violence, and even many treating psychiatrists have faced violent behaviors by these patients. The situations sometimes become pretty grim.
Sudden Changes In behavior:
Often the patients facing the psychiatric emergency lose touch with reality and face random behavior changes. They start acting strangely and say things that don’t make any sense. They even start hallucinating and hearing things that are not true.
Treatment Of Psychiatric Emergency
The psychiatric emergency is a significant issue that requires immediate treatment. The mental health experts can handle these emergencies in their regular hours, and the treatment includes:
- The patients need to be placed under the supervision of a professional in an emergency room.
- Intoxicating substances that lead to violent activities are cut down.
- Specific medication is used to bring the patients under control.
- Limited access is provided to the emergency room and the areas of treatment. The rooms also have a call button for emergencies.
Psychiatric emergencies are life-threatening situations and require immediate treatment to avoid harm to the patient and others.
The patients facing this situation may be hard to control, but the medical staff is adequately trained to handle them, and under the correct guidance, they can be adequately treated. With the treatment at the right time, the patients and the other members of society can be saved.
