Some police have stopped answering mental health calls, with no alternative support in place, experts warn

Police forces in parts of the UK have stopped answering urgent calls related to mental health even before alternative support is available to people, under a policy designed to free up officers’ time, MPs were told last week.

The move means many vulnerable people are being left without help in areas where the necessary services and arrangements with other agencies are not yet in place, warned Sarah Hughes, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind.

Giving evidence to the House of Commons health select committee on Tuesday 19 September, Hughes said, “We know of local Mind and local trust partners who are already experiencing people having no response because the police are saying they no longer respond to mental health calls.”

The policy, Right Care, Right Person, which was developed by Humberside Police over nearly three years, is being rolled out in England and Wales from the end of October at varying speeds. Backed by the government and police representative bodies, it aims to ensure that patients in a mental health crisis are treated by the most appropriate agency, rather than have police act as default responder, when they may not be best suited to help.

But the Royal College of Psychiatrists is among the organisations to have raised concerns over the levels of preparation and resourcing for the policy and the absence of evaluation of clinical outcomes or benefits and harms to the population.

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Source: BMJ, 25 September 2023