Emergency doctors and psychiatrists will gather together in Melbourne to discuss how to tackle Australia's mental health crisis.

Doctors, psychiatrists and nurses will gather in Melbourne to find a way to tackle rising numbers of mental health patients appearing in emergency departments.

A summit on Tuesday hopes to try and address the issue and work out how to help those in a mental emergency.

"The experiences that people with mental health crises seeking help from emergency departments are having across Australia aren't good enough," Australasian College for Emergency Medicine President Dr Simon Judkins said earlier this month.

"These are problems that emergency doctors cannot solve alone; they reflect a sector under great stress and lack of a plan for system-wide development."

More than 250,000 Australians head to emergency departments to seek help for acute mental and behavioural conditions, according to research by ACEM.

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