Mind responds to comments from the Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire about police time spent addressing mental health crises
In a speech on Thursday 13 April, the Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire, Chris Philp, commented on the amount of time police officers were spending attending to situations involving people experiencing a mental health crisis.
The Minister stated that "police should not be a stopgap for other services." He went on to specify that police officers should not be expected to support in situations where someone experiences mental health crisis and there is no threat to life or safety.
Responding to comments made in the speech, Vicki Nash, Assistant Director of External Relations at Mind, said:
“Although helping people in mental health crisis is part of core police business, it’s vitally important that someone experiencing a mental health crisis gets the right support at the right time in the right way.
“Mental health services have been chronically underfunded for decades and much more needs to be done to bring services to the standard where everybody can get the support they need from the NHS.
“Any changes to supporting people in a mental health crisis need to be thought through carefully and collectively, and rolled out with enough time to ensure strong partnerships are built at a local level and – crucially – no one is left without the support they need when they need it.”
