Experts raise alarm over Met Police plan to attend fewer mental health calls

The mental health crisis needs a serious injection of resources, experts say, after the Met Police said it would stop attending incidents involving patients.

The force will only respond if there is an immediate threat to life.

It comes after it emerged officers spend 10,000 hours a month dealing with mental-health issues.

Nationally, officers spend a million hours a year waiting for mental health patients to be assessed.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley appears to have lost patience with the “right care, right person” scheme. The capital’s force will stop responding after August 31.

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In a letter to health and social care services, he said officers were “failing Londoners twice” by carrying on the practice. Not only were they doing the work of health professionals, they were being diverted from preventing and solving crime.

He wrote: “To illustrate further the pressing need for reform, on April 28/29 the Met received the highest number of 999 calls we have ever taken – 9,292. Only 30 percent were classed as crime related.”

However, Andy Bell, of think tank Centre for Mental Health, said: “There’s a growing situation because we know there are more people getting to mental health crisis point. Mental health has got worse in the last year. Years of austerity in social
services mean people aren’t getting help as early as they should.”

Zoe Billingham, former Inspector of Constabulary, who is also chairwoman of NHS mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk, said it would be “really, really dangerous” for the police to unilaterally withdraw from attending mental health incidents.

Sarah Hughes, chief executive of mental health charity Mind, said: “We are not in a fit-for-purpose state, to go straight to this policy.”

It often takes up to 14 hours for police to hand a patient over to medical staff, according to Mr Rowley.

In Humberside, police work alongside professionals from Mind in the control room to decide whether officers need to attend incidents.

This has saved 1,100 police hours per month, reclaiming seven percent of officer time to fight crime.