Health services should lead on people in mental crisis

THE health services need to take the lead in dealing with people in crisis, as officers are overburdened with mental health calls, South Yorkshire Police Federation has warned.

Steve Kent, Chairman, was speaking after an official report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire Services found that overstretched police forces are having to “pick up the pieces of a broken mental health system”.

Steve said: “As we know, all public bodies including the NHS, are struggling. I know from speaking to people personally in the mental health services that they are stretched. So they absolutely do have my sympathy and a lot of officers’ sympathy.

“But it cannot be deferred to the police to deal with what is essentially a medical matter. Of course the police will, and should, be on hand to help in emergency situations where individuals and members of the public are at risk of harm. However, we should be seen as the supporting agency and not the primary lead agency, which seems to be the case most of the time.”

The police service is too overburdened with demand and under-resourced to deal with mental health issues, and the impact is being felt on the ground, Steve said. Officers are used to being the first responders to mental health incidents and having to wait up to five or six hours to get assistance from a medical or mental health specialist. He called for a 24/7 culture to be developed within the NHS, so mental health cases weren’t always left for the police to respond to.

Steve added: “It is a funding and the culture thing. Because there’s difficulty in expressing this without enraging anybody in the NHS – obviously they could do with more money. But they are getting a lot more money comparatively to us; it’s just I think they potentially need to start treating mental health as they would with physical health.”

Zoë Billingham, author of the HMICFRS report, said: “We cannot expect the police to pick up the pieces of a broken mental health system. Overstretched and all too often overwhelmed police officers can’t always respond appropriately, and people in mental health crisis don’t always get the help they need.

“People in crisis with mental health problems need expert support – support that can’t be carried out in the back of a police car or by locking them into a police cell. All too often, the system is failing people when they most need help.”