A cross-agency approach which has seen the number of people in mental health crisis who are locked up in police cells in Staffordshire fall by almost two-thirds has been praised in a national report.
Matthew Ellis, Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, put pressure on mental health service providers to agree a protocol to ensure alternatives to custody are in place.
In Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, this cross-sector approach has seen the number of people detained in police custody under the Mental Health Act fall by 59 per cent – from 168 in 2012 to 69 in 2014.
The report by national charity Revolving Doors, published during Mental Health Awareness Week (11-17 May), outlines the “national impact” of the work in Staffordshire.
It highlights the successful community triage scheme which has seen police and mental health professionals work together in North Staffordshire to make sure people in crisis get the right help in the right place. The scheme has significantly contributed to the fall in detentions in custody and is set to be extended to the south of the county this summer.
Mr Ellis said: “Police custody is fundamentally the wrong place for an individual who is in mental health crisis to be kept if they haven’t committed a crime.
“We need to stop criminalising people who are simply ill and ensure officers are not tied up with issues they are unqualified to deal with.
“The ambition for cross-agency working has really taken hold in in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, which has led to a drop of almost two-thirds in mental health detentions in custody.
“The community triage system, which I initially funded, has proved effective and is now being funded by the NHS going forward and be extended to the south of Staffordshire.
“It shows that there is clear joined up ambition to do better and work towards common goals and that, by doing so, we can make real progress. The challenge now is to keep things going in the right direction to make sure that even fewer people are locked up in police custody for simply being ill.”
Revolving Doors’ report can be read at http://www.revolving-doors.org.uk/documents/pcc-spotlight-mental-health/
