Emergency Situation Guidelines

Emergency Situations Guidelines

Emergency Situations:

In certain instances, it is difficult to obtain immediate psychiatric assistance from your psychiatrist or psychologist due to the time of day, night or year, or due to your preferred physician being unavailable or fully booked. In these emergency situations, we suggest the following processes to get the help you need.

 

For IMMEDIATE or URGENT assistance, the below options are available.   

  

Disclaimer:

*These are possible courses of action, but may not apply to every situation.   When in doubt, contact the below emergency numbers or your medical aid. 

**Note that we don’t know what costs your medical aid will cover.  

 

Possible Situation

Proposed Course of Action

    • The person is aggressive or violent towards others:

OR 

    • The person has harmed themselves or someone else:
    1. Contact the police and emergency services.
    2. Inform them that the person has a psychiatric condition or are acting completely out of character.
    3. Emer-G-Med provides both ambulance and security assistance, and can be called on 086 100 7911. 
    •  If the person is not violent, but you cannot control or help them:
    1. Contact Emer-G-Med.
    2. Disclose that the person has a psychiatric condition,
    3. Then they will come and assist you in getting the person the help they need.
    • You or the person is suicidal or a danger to themselves:
    1. Take the person to your GP or the Emergency Room. 
    2. There, the GP or doctor on duty will assess and advise you.
    3. The doctor will contact Dr Jerrie/Vista Clinic for the doctor on standby, for the most appropriate and immediate solution and advise you on the next steps.
    4. Based on the circumstances and diagnosis, the person may need to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital after being stabilised at the GP/ER.
    5. The person may voluntarily be admitted to Vista Clinic after stabilising. They may be admitted to Vista by Dr Jerrie or the doctor on call if Dr Jerrie cannot be reached. 
    • You or the person is suicidal or a danger to themselves, and you have already made an appointment to see your psychiatrist, 
    • OR you have to wait a day to be admitted to hospital.
    1. Have a trusted friend or family member stay over, or stay over at their house. 
    2.  Make a checklist of things that you need for your hospital stay and what to pack.
    • A medical doctor or other clinician suggests that the person seek urgent psychiatric assistance:
    1. The referring doctor/clinician may contact Dr Jerrie/Vista Clinic for the doctor on standby to discuss the matter clinically and together they will find the most appropriate immediate solution and advise you accordingly.
    • You or the person is a current patient of Dr Jerrie and feel that they need urgent psychiatric assistance and we are unavailable:
    1. Take the person to your GP or the Emergency Room.
    2. The GP or doctor on duty will advise you based on their assessment.
    3. They may try to contact Dr Jerrie again, or Vista Clinic for the doctor on standby to find an appropriate and immediate solution. 
    • If you cannot contact emergency services for whatever reason:
    1. Try to persuade the person to go to the GP or Emergency Room.
    2. Otherwise, try to contact someone else that you and the person trust to come and assist you.
    3. After they arrive or otherwise assist you,  you can try to phone emergency services for support and assistance, or the trusted person may help persuade the person to the emergency room.

Emergency Contact Details:

EMER-G-MED:                                                      086 100 7911

Police Department:                                             10111

Fire Brigade and Emergency Services:           10177

Unitas Hospital:                                                   012 677 8000

ER 24:                                                                    084 124

Netcare:                                                                082 911 or 0860 638 2273

Tshwane District Hospital Emergency:           012 354 7000