Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.
Claire Greaves "It is a place for criminals not people who are feeling ill"
Too many mentally ill people are being held in police cells, say four watchdog bodies in England and Wales.
A report from the four bodies covering police, prisons and care called for a rethink of how powers are used to detain people in a "place of safety".
Some of those who were detained were as young as 14.
Current guidance says police should take the mentally ill to a hospital or similar location in all but exceptional circumstances.
But the report from Her Majesty's Inspectorates of Constabulary and Prisons, the Care Quality Commission and the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales said detention in police cells was far from exceptional.
"Start Quote
End Quote Drusilla Sharpling HM Inspectorate of ConstabularyTheir only 'crime' is that they have mental disorders, but they are treated in many ways as if they are criminals."
Under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983, police officers can hold someone for their own protection and so that they can be medically assessed.
Examples include officers called to deal with an elderly person with dementia walking outside alone, people who may be suicidal, or incidents in which someone is suffering from a psychotic episode leading to abnormal or dangerous behaviour.
During 2011-12, 9,000 people were detained in police custody under section 136, while 16,000 were taken to a hospital.
This is "clearly not an exceptional use of the power", the inspectors said.
When they looked closely at a sample of 70 cases, they found that eight out of 10 of those held in police cells had been detained in relation to fears either that they were suicidal or that they could harm themselves.
The report said that people detained in police custody under section 136 were subject to the same "processes and procedures" as arrested criminals.
The average stay in a cell was more than 10 hours. Inspectors said the legal disparity needed to be resolved between mental health detainees, who could be held for 72 hours, and most criminals, who must be charged or released after 24.
Bed or staff shortageThe most common reasons for police custody were that there was neither a bed nor staff available at a hospital or other healthcare facility.
"Start Quote
End Quote Kevin Huish Police FederationIt needs to be made abundantly clear that police officers do not wish to detain people under the mental health act but are all too often forced to so do due to a lack of provision in other services"
Other detainees were taken to cells because they were drunk, behaving violently, or known to have done so in the past.
The report said many police officers had told inspectors they did not think that custody was the best place for these people.
Drusilla Sharpling, of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, said: "This report finds that too many people are being detained in police custody under section 136.
"Their only 'crime' is that they have mental disorders, but they are treated in many ways as if they are criminals. This deplorable situation cannot be allowed to continue."
The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners said: "It is a police officer's role to ensure the safety of the public and individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others.
"PCCs support the call that resources are put in place by commissioners of health, mental health and social services to ensure that people detained under section 136 are assessed quickly in a health-based setting."
'Last resort'A Home Office spokesman said the department was working on measures to ensure mentally ill people got the required care, including a pilot of street triage services where mental health nurses accompany police to incidents.
A mental health charity said it was government policy that had reduced the number of psychiatric beds and staff, putting pressure on overstretched crisis teams.
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said: "The failure to fund psychiatric services so that they are able to respond to people in mental crisis is unfair on both the person who urgently needs care, not confinement, and the police themselves, who are being forced to pick up the pieces when there is nowhere to take a disturbed person, or who have to wait too many hours for a crisis team."
Mental health charity Mind called for police to work in partnership with hospitals, mental health liaison officers, and outreach teams
Chief executive Paul Farmer added: "When someone is experiencing a mental health crisis they need care and support, not to be treated like they are a criminal.
"Often the reason that someone is detained by police is because they have attempted to take their own life so a police cell is a completely inappropriate environment."
College of Policing chief executive Chief Constable Alex Marshall said police often ended up as "the service of last resort" and added that proper police training was essential to ensure people got the right help as soon a practicable.
Kevin Huish, the Police Federation's lead on mental health, said: "We have always maintained that police cells should not be considered a designated place of safety for anyone detained under the mental health act.
"It needs to be made abundantly clear that police officers do not wish to detain people under the mental health act but are all too often forced to so do due to a lack of provision in other services."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Police 'hold too many mentally ill'
Dengan url
http://sarapanoatmeal.blogspot.com/2013/06/police-hold-too-many-mentally-ill.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Police 'hold too many mentally ill'
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Police 'hold too many mentally ill'
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar