Mental Health Emergency Response supporting Northern Tasmanians

The Tasmanian Government’s highly successful Mental Health Emergency Response (MHER) service is celebrating one year of operations in the State’s North.

Minister for Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Bridget Archer, said the first year of the service has been very successful in ensuring Tasmanians can access the right mental health care, in the right place, at the right time.

“Commencing this service in the North was the final piece of a statewide rollout, which was a significant milestone for Tasmania’s mental health services,” Minister Archer said.

“The Northern service features the Police, Ambulance and Clinician Early Response (PACER) model, where first responders from each organisation attend callouts in the same vehicle.

“Over the past 12 months, the PACER North team has attended more than 1,083 callouts, supporting people to remain in the community and avoid unnecessary hospital attendances or admissions in nearly three quarters of cases.

“These community-based interventions help reduce pressure on our emergency departments, hospitals, ambulance and police services, providing care more effectively and efficiently.”

Expanding PACER to Northern Tasmania was an important commitment made by the Tasmanian Government at the 2024 State Election, following the successful rollout of the service in the South in 2022 and the North West in 2023.

The Northern service runs from 1pm to 11pm, 7 days a week.