Police Waste Time With Mental Health Patients.

Sky News has released that a senior police officer has informed them officers spend 20% of their time dealing with mental health issues even though they have not been trained or equipped to deal with such matters.

Assistant Chief Constable Paul Netherton of the Devon and Cornwall Police has said ‘tensions’ were rising between police forces and mental health care providers. This is possibly due to budget cuts (even though the Conservative party say they want this to change).

“Certainly over the last few years that tension has been growing. We are all in austerity. We understand that”

He continued by saying, "We haven't got the skills, we haven’t got the facilities. And to be frankly honest a custody block is never somewhere you should put someone who is suicidal."

Mr. Netherton last year went to Twitter after his officers had to arrest and detain a mentally-ill schoolgirl.

The teenage girl, had a history of serious self-harm, and had to stay in a police cell for THREE days because a secure bed was not available, anywhere in the country. The 16-year old girl and her family are still in misery as she is being held in a hospital in Norwich even though her family lives in Devon.

This scandle got the whole country talking and actually forced some government action.

West Midlands Police began a service last year, in which an unmarked ambulance with a police officer, a psychiatric nurse and a paramedic are dispatched to emergencies. The hope is that people suffereing from mental health issues can be identified quicker.

Chief Inspector Sean Russell, who is in charge of this, told Sky News the force has seen numbers of police detentions being used drop significantly.

"We’ve seen a 51% reduction in the number of people detained. That's over 300 people in Birmingham and Solihull in the last 12 months. So that's really significant. We’ve also stopped nearly 700 people being admitted to A&E because of the way our process works with the paramedic now."

Unfortunately this is not happening all across the country meaning police forces, against their will are still having to place ill people into the criminal system.

Source: http://news.sky.com/story/1445695/police-time-tied-up-with-mental-health-issues

Image from: http://www.hse.gov.uk/services/police/

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