From Pinnacle: Damon Darsey on Patient Mental Health and its Impact on EMS

Assaults on public safety personnel have increased 700% in just the last several weeks. Does your agency’s leadership have a plan in place to protect its responders?

Damon A. Darsey, MD, FAEMS, presented “Addressing Patient Mental Health Challenges in EMS and Law Enforcement: Operational, Financial, and Personnel Solutions” Wednesday afternoon Juily 16, 2025 at the Pinnacle EMS conference in Phoenix.

Mental health episodes account for a large segment of assaults on first responders, said Darsey. Many patients who assault health care workers and law enforcement feel as if they have nothing to lose. Others are deliberately provoking responders to elicit a reaction—whether for social media, lawsuits, or other reasons. “They are testing boundaries,” said Darsey.

Be aware: Cameras are everywhere and they are becoming rapidly more pervasive.

Darsey is a Mississippi emergency physician with more than 20 years of experience in public safety, field and emergency medicine. He holds two board certifications in emergency medicine and EMS.

Darsey’s professional passion remains in supporting the medical care and wellness of public safety professionals throughout Mississippi and bringing attention to the needs of rural public safety professionals at the local, state and federal levels.

Interesting ideas and strategies to implement in light of mental health crises among patients, according to Darsey:

• Investigate the prospect of a liaison in dispatch who can discreetly connect patients in crisis to community mental health resources
• Evaluation tents and sequestered areas for patients experiencing a mental health episode are a powerful way to protect patients’ dignity and privacy, as well as de-escalate volatile encounters. “We do this at crime scenes to protect the identity of the deceased,” Darsey said. “Why should we not afford the same courtesy to the living?”
• Educate your teams on overdose management, which doesn’t always involve Narcan. While a powerful intervention, Narcan does not fix everything and is employed too often by responders and bystanders, Darsey said.
• Learn from your local departments of corrections, which are often at the forefront of resources, interventions and ways that people’s rights are protected. As one example, new designer drugs often surface in prison populations first before spreading into the community, Darsey said.

Finally, compassionate, discreet care for people in behavioral crisis transcends patients and should also be extended to EMS professionals experiencing similar episodes, stressed Darsey. “How do we peel back the negative perceptions of providers who have experienced a mental health episode?” he asked his attendees. Many times, having to answer “yes” on an employment questionnaire indicating that a person has been treated for a mental health episode doesn’t just carry a social stigma—it can end a career.

Targeted toward EMS leaders, Pinnacle is an annual conference that facilitates networking, learning and discussion among public safety and EMS leadership. The 2025 conference is being held July 14-18 at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix. This is the conference’s 20th year.

EMS World is a media sponsor of Pinnacle.