Nenagh councillor calls for rollout of PAM ambulances for mental health patients

A Tipperary councillor has called for the use of PAMs (Psychiatric emergency response teams) in Tipperary.

Cllr Seamus Morris said that in one of his first acts as a Tipperary County Council representative on the Regional health forum Western area was to ask the Health Minister to roll out the use of PAM ambulances in Tipperary.

“Tipperary, as we know, has been stripped of psychiatric services with people suffering from psychiatric episodes ending up in overcrowded emergency departments, which are the most inappropriate places for them,” he said.

Cllr Morris said that PAMs were effectively "therapy on wheels".

From the outside, the ambulance looks like an ordinary ambulance but inside, rather than bright lights and stretchers, there are comfortable seats and warm, inviting lights, where the dedicated team listen to someone in need of counselling.

The PAM team includes two mental health nurses and one paramedic, meaning the quality of care is improved, he said.