PACER program to continue supporting mental health

The ACT Government will continue to fund the second Police, Ambulance and Clinician Early Response (PACER) team.

The PACER team works together to respond to, assess, and help Canberrans experiencing a mental health crisis.

The team includes a police officer, paramedic, and mental health clinician. They work together to assess and help people of all ages.

The team of experts provides timely and appropriate mental health support.

• The police officer helps to make sure that the person being assessed, the PACER team, and the community are safe.
• The paramedic helps to check and treat any physical health concerns.
• The mental health clinician assesses the person’s mental health concerns and provides support.

The program minimises both avoidable hospital presentations and contact with the justice system for people with mental health conditions.

The program is positively impacting individual lives as well as the ACT’s emergency systems. Since it began in 2019, PACER has attended 6,510 incidents.

Over 70 per cent of people PACER respond to receive the support and care they need outside of the hospital.

PACER is available for people in Canberra who have been referred through ACT Policing and the ACT Ambulance Service. The PACER team visits people at their homes or wherever they are in the community.

The people supported by PACER, their families, carers and the teams have provided feedback on how the program can be improved.

The ACT Government will look in future to strengthen the PACER model of care to better support the wellbeing and mental health needs of Canberrans in crisis, their family and carers.