Improving Emergency Mental Health care: the EmPATH Concept with Dr Scott Zeller
NHS Fife, DRNS and University of Edinburgh are hosting a seminar with Dr. Scott Zeller on “Improving Emergency Mental Health care: the EmPATH Concept”
EmPATH stands for “Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment and Healing.” EmPATH Units deliver acute interventions for behavioral healthcare patients by moving them out of hectic emergency departments into a calm, therapeutic setting. As a result, patient agitation and aggression is dramatically reduced and the need for coercive interventions like involuntary medications and physical restraints drops to nearly zero. This includes patients with substance use-related presentations.
Scott Zeller, MD is Vice President for Acute Psychiatry at the multistate multispecialty physician group partnership Vituity; assistant professor at University of California-Riverside School of Medicine; Past President of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry; Past Chair of the National Coalition on Psychiatric Emergencies; and former Chief of Psychiatric Emergency Services for the Alameda Health System in Oakland, CA, where he developed the “Alameda Model.” He has authored multiple textbooks, book chapters, and peer-reviewed articles, has lectured in-person in every continent on Earth except Antarctica, is known as the co-inventor of Emergency Telepsychiatry for hospital emergency departments, and the creator of the EmPATH Unit (Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment and Healing Unit) model for behavioral health emergency care. He led Project BETA (Best Practices in the Evaluation and Treatment of Agitation), which produced guidelines that have revolutionized the care approach to agitated individuals around the world. He was awarded the 2015 USA Doctor of the Year by the National Council for Behavioral Health, the 2019 California Hospital Association Heerman Award for making a landmark contribution to improving California healthcare, in 2020 was named one of the “ten most influential people in healthcare design” by Healthcare Design Magazine.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served. Please reach out to mcalnan@ed.ac.uk with any dietary or venue access requirements.
