Key messages
- Mental health patients have the right to safe transport that minimises interference with their rights, dignity and self-respect, and that reduces the likelihood they will experience the transport as a traumatic event. This right, however, needs to be balanced with the safety of all concerned and the active management of risk. Any restriction of a person’s rights needs to be reasonable and proportional.
- Transportation not only enables access to mental health care but is also a point of care provision itself.
- Transport carries potential risks and so deserves an appropriate level of consideration and collaboration to make the situation as safe as possible for all involved.
Purpose and scope
This guideline outlines sound practice principles and procedures for mental health professionals who are making decisions about people experiencing mental illness who require transport.
These decisions need to be made when a person requires transport for assessment or treatment in the following circumstances:
- when voluntary or involuntary patients in the community need transport to an inpatient facility and/or an emergency department
- when community treatment order (CTO) patients have had their orders revoked and need to be returned to hospital
- when patients are being transported between hospitals
General principles
Transportation not only enables access to mental health care but is also a point of care provision itself.
Transport carries potential risks and so deserves an appropriate level of consideration and collaboration to make the situation as safe as possible for all involved.
Mental health patients have the right to safe transport that minimises interference with their rights, dignity and self-respect, and that reduces the likelihood they will experience the transport as a traumatic event.
This right, however, needs to be balanced with the safety of all concerned and the active management of risk. Any restriction of a person’s rights needs to be reasonable and proportional.
Patients should be encouraged to make their own decisions and arrangements for transport wherever possible and when clinically and legally appropriate.
The impact of transport decisions on any family, friends or carers involved also needs to be considered.
The patient’s legal status under the Mental Health Act 1986 (the Act) will impact significantly on the choice of transport used, as will the scope of practice and role of the transport provider.
For example, patients who are involuntary and require sedation or restraint may only be transported by emergency ambulance.
Reviewed 26 October 2022