ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PARAMEDIC

Role and Responsibilities of the Paramedic

Role and Responsibilities of the Paramedic

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of Paramedics for the mental health patients. A paramedic is a medical professional who has advanced training and skills and has the abilities to perform some duties of Physician. Paramedics are normally found in the emergency department, and they can perform the tasks of examination, treatment and evaluation of patients by using the equipment and medications (Alcock, 2006, p. 56). Normally the responsibilities of paramedics are limited to the ambulances or first response emergency vehicles, or we can say that their predominant utilization is on emergency. With the passage of time, the scope and duties of paramedics is increasing in other areas too. The other areas in which the scope of paramedics is increasing are schools, hospitals, industry, colleges and doctor's offices. The highly trained and skilled paramedics have their job duties in areas like medical department of cruise ships, helicopter or fixed wing medical transport and offshore oil drilling platforms. They are considered to be the highly trained and professional medical providers in these areas.

Mental health Illness

The term mental illness is a description of a wide range of medical and emotional conditions. The term mental illness also describes the term mental impairment. This term differs from some mental impairment like organic brain damage, mental retardation and learning disabilities (Thompson, 1994, p. 8). When there is interference of mental illness with the performance of main activities of life like learning, communicating and working, then the term psychiatric disability is used for this.

Current topical issues within mental health

Over the last two decades, mental health issues, including compassion fatigue, burnout, PTSD, and depression, have been identified as possible precursors to the turnover rate in EMS. Mental health care for paramedics and other public safety professionals has routinely concentrated on symptom identification, diagnosis, and rapid treatment of immediate critical stress, but long-term management has not been promptly provided. Careful clinical exploration for possible predisposition to traumatic stress, psychological disease and long-term management of mental health issues has been overlooked with paramedics. Evaluating how paramedics identified with their professional role may assist counselling approaches when dealing with mental health factors that are endemic to EMS, such as compassion fatigue, burnout, and PTSD (Spirito, 2003, p. 90).

Interventions and management in mental health

Mental health involves finding a balance in all aspects of life: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. It is the ability to enjoy life and instead of the daily challenges - either by making decisions, coping and adapting to difficult situations or talking about our needs and desires. There are many opinions about why people have mental problems (Shipway, 2004, p. 56). The Studies suggest that many problems involving serious mental disturbances biochemical's in the brain (Sayce, 1999, p. 67). Professionals in the industry add that our welfare is affected by psychological, social and environmental.

Learning Disabilities

Learning disability refers to the condition when a person faces problems in learning ...