No, Batsgirl, you're no talking out of your arse! To someone who is mentally distressed an ambulance feels a lot safer than a cab or similar. It's very difficult to know what to do when you are mentally ill or married to someone who is, (I'm both). When my husband was self-harming the police ALWAYS came with the ambulance although the impulse to harm is never directed at anyone else. Having the police there was always a shock and not really helpful except for the important thing of reassuring the ambulance crew. One crew in particular was very unhappy about taking us to A&E. There was a powerful implication that we were abusing the system. In the first place we didn't know what the protocol was for MH patients, in the second my husband was far too anxious and wound up to be able to manage any other form of transport. I was also extremely upset at what was happening and the continued stress of the months of his illness. What would have been the appropriate form of transport for us? I don't know, all I know is that the only manageable one was an ambulance but that became horrendous due to the exceptional attitude of the crew. Thank goodness it was a one off and I suspect that it's probable that they had recently had to deal with some traumatic physical illness/accident which coloured their reactions to us. As patients of course we had no knowledge about what their situation was and already had too much to deal with. On other occasions ambulance people were fine and helpul.