Ursula Rolfe - Mental Health Care in Paramedic Practice

Dr Ursula Rolfe is a principal academic and deputy head of the Midwifery and Health Sciences Department at Bournemouth University. Within this role, she is also Practice Simulation Lead for the Health Sciences Faculty. Ursula has a PhD with the focus on how paramedics manage patients experiencing mental health from the University of Southampton and has presented her work at various national and international conferences. She has been the national Mental Health Lead for the College of Paramedics since 2014 and continues to support and initiate change for frontline paramedics within this arena and feels it is vital to highlight the need for further education, training and support. This book was the next step in terms of identifying means to support her fellow paramedics in managing mental health patients. She continues to publish and initiate research within this field while maintaining her clinical practice as a paramedic prescriber in urgent care.

David Partlow is currently a Strategic Manager within Adult Social Care in Somerset. David joined the NHS in 1996 after six years in the Army, serving in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. David progressed through operational management within the ambulance service and subsequently spent 11 years as a Clinical Development Manager and Senior Clinical Lead. Amongst other things, David was the Mental Health Lead at his trust and represented them at the National Ambulance Service Mental Health Group. He has undertaken sessional lectures on the Mental Capacity Act and Mental Health Act at universities in the South West region and has represented the ambulance service on the National Steering Group for the Crisis Care Concordat and the independent review of the Mental Health Act. Moving into Adult Social Care, David is responsible for in-patient mental health, social care, the AMHP service and adult safeguarding. Since the onset of the COVID pandemic, David has also been the COVID-19 lead for Adult Social Care, responsible for providing guidance and support to the care sector. Outside of work, David is the Vice Chair and Trustee of a suicide bereavement charity and coaches and helps run the minis and juniors section of his local rugby club.

Chapter contributors

Will Murcott is a Mental Health Nurse and Senior Lecturer at the Open University. Will is passionate about inter-professional working and the importance of mental health care across all disciplines in health and social care. Will has a strong clinical interest in pre-hospital mental health care, having worked in many community settings with children, young people and their families. Wills career has been across many different settings including secure services and CAMHS inpatient and community care. In his educational capacity Will has supported paramedic pre-registration training, providing teaching on mental health care and the legal aspects to mental health care. He has contributed to the JRCALC Clinical Guidelines and his research areas of interest are young peoples mental health.

Carol Robertson is an Advanced Clinical Practitioner and Paramedic. She recently began working at East Cheshire NHS Trust within the Older Persons Assessment & Liaison (OPAL) team following a long career with the North West Ambulance Service. Her roles included Community Specialist Paramedic, Specialist in Telephone Triage and Paramedic Supervisor. Carol developed her interest in older adults during her time working within telephone triage where she recognised there was a high volume of calls relating to older adults who had fallen. As she progressed to the role of Community Specialist Paramedic she developed her skills, knowledge and interest in delirium, frailty and ageing. She graduated with an MSc in Advance Clinical Practice in 2020. Within her Trust she developed eLearning modules for all clinicians and non-clinicians on the topic of delirium and (alongside colleagues) developed a frailty eLearning module for all staff. In addition to this, she has delivered a podcast for the College of Paramedics on Older Adults plus two CPD webinars. Within her Community Specialist Paramedic role Carol has delivered falls and frailty awareness to ambulance clinicians, independent living communities, older persons groups such as lunch clubs, WI and U3A. She has also developed a falls and frailty training presentation for care and nursing home staff. At home Carol is married to a fellow paramedic and their lives revolve around their dogs!

Aimee Yarrington has been a qualified midwife since 2003. She has worked in all areas of midwifery practice, from the high-risk consultant-led units to the low-risk stand-alone midwife-led units. She left full-time midwifery practice to join the ambulance service, starting as an Emergency Care Assistant and working her way up to Paramedic while always keeping her midwifery practice up to date. She has worked in several areas within the ambulance service including the emergency operations centre and the education and training department. Her work towards improving the education of pre-hospital maternity care has led to her receiving a fellowship award from the College of Paramedics. She strives to improve the teaching and education for clinicians in dealing with pre-hospital maternity care.