A Mental Health Crisis

Mental Health care in London is in crisis.

As a response police officer I would estimate that at least 50% of call outs are to people from suffering with mental health problems. It appears that no matter how in need of help they, they are soon released without adequate support and we are soon picking them up once again. I once section 136'd a male who was attacking passers-by with a mallet. He was violent towards any passing public and police and could easily have killed somebody. It was clear that once he was detained safely that he had major mental health problems. We were glad to section the male and take him to a place of safety at a mental health hospital where he could receive help. A couple of months later a colleague text me and told me that he had just had to section the male again, in the same place, doing the same thing. Luckily nobody was harmed on either occasion.

This example is not a rarity but, instead, commonplace. There is a distinct lack of funding and care which leaves a hole that police officers are expected to fill. Whilst officers are usually dynamic and communicative, the very presence of police can often aggravate a person with poor mental health. They need a response from mental health specialists.

It has often hit the media that police cells are used as a 'place of safety' for persons whom have been subject to Section 136. The truth is that often there is 'no room at the inn' at designated mental health suites, hospitals don't tend to want to know and the only option remaining is a police cell. However, since negative media attention on the issue this practice has all but ceased.

There are problems around legislation and police power. Section 136 of the Mental Health Act gives officers the power to take a person who is deemed an immediate danger to themselves or others to a designated place of safety, by force if necessary. This, however, only applies if the person is in a public space. If someone is at home and threatening to kill themselves, the police, nor the ambulance, have the power to forcibly take them to get help. The ambulance service have a Section 135, however this only gives them the power similar to a 136 if that person is unable to make a decision for themselves. This would include if they were physically unable to communicate, or mentally unwell enough to be unable to communicate. If they were sat on their bed, lucidly communicating how they intended to end their life, 135 would not apply. This often leads to a stalemate whereby police and paramedics remain at a mentally unwell person's home for hours and hours, trying to convince them to go to hospital, at least voluntarily. This grey area needs addressing and legislating for immediately.

Police officers, in the main, are all rounders and are equipped with problem solving skills and communication skills that get them through these incidents. However, officers are not trained in mental health to any kind of degree whereby they are truly equipped to do anything other than deliver people in need to the deficient services that are currently available.

Anonymous Bobby