Calls for police to keep answering mental health calls, while forces suffer their own crisis

The government should require police forces in England to keep attending mental health calls, the charity Rethink Mental Illness has urged.

The charity has written to the home secretary and health secretary asking them to pause the Right Care, Right Person scheme, under which police forces have stopped responding to mental health calls.

The move was prompted by a series of tragic deaths that have occurred since the scheme was introduced. Rethink Mental Illness says that, if the NHS is to step in and respond to emergency mental health call-outs instead of the police, it needs more funding to do so.

The aim of Right Care, Right Person is to enable police officers to tackle crime rather than spend their time responding to mental health callouts, which then often entails an office waiting for hours in A&E with the mentally unwell patient. Rethink, however, says that health and social care services need an additional £260m in funding to plug the gap left by the police, as well as clear lines of oversight and accountability.

Right Care, Right Person has a future

Mark Winstanley, the chief executive of Rethink Mental Illness, said: “A mental health crisis is an emergency, and plans drawn up on paper have to work effectively in someone’s hour of need. Every second counts in a mental health crisis, and so it’s vital that the process works smoothly and that the most appropriate, trained professional can be quickly on the scene to reduce any risk to life.

“We’re all in agreement that in most cases, the police are not the best agency to support people in severe mental distress. And we believe the Right Care, Right Person scheme has a future, provided it is rolled out carefully.

“But monitoring the initial impact, we’re growing increasingly concerned that forces have stepped back too quickly, without the proper checks and balances in place alongside the resources needed to plug the gap.”

This month Norfolk police suspended the launch of the scheme following the deaths of four family members. Ambulance chiefs have also warned that patients and paramedics have come to harm, while coroners have cited the scheme in prevention of future deaths reports.

Rethink has also heard concerns from the people it supports about how calls are assessed.

A government spokesman told the Guardian: “Police forces are working closely with local health and social care partners to ensure that this new approach is rolled out when it is safe to do so.”

Police Scotland loses thousands of days to mental health problems

While police in England are declining to attend mental health call-outs, police in Scotland are experiencing their own mental health crisis.

Freedom of information figures for 2022 show that in Police Scotland, 249,389 days were lost to sickness, of which 58,823 were due to mental health problems. These problems included anxiety, depression, insomnia, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Amongst the rank of constable, 208,087 days were lost to sickness, of which 49,315 were down to mental health problems.

Of the 47 officers at the most senior ranks of chief superintendent, assistant chief constable and deputy chief constable, there were 341 recorded sick days of which 213 were lost due to mental health concerns.

David Kennedy, the general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said officers were being pushed every day to their limits due to cutbacks and reductions in numbers: “All ranks are suffering at the moment from the state of the economy and police service. From the moment officers arrive at work to the moment they leave they are full on. They are not getting any respite from the daily grind no matter what rank they are and it is not going away.”