The Met Police’s plan to stop attending emergency mental health incidents is “potentially alarming”, a former inspector of constabulary has said.
From September, officers will only attend mental health 999 calls with an “immediate threat to life”. Zoe Billingham, previously Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue, said the proposals could create a “vacuum”, with mental health charity Minds expressing concerns over the plan.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Police Commissioner for the Met, has written to health chiefs in London informing them of his plan. Rowley and the Met argue this move will free up resources after a steep rise in mental health incidents being dealt with by officers.
Some senior police officers believe this is down to the service increasingly being seen as the first resort for people in a crisis, as well as a lack of capacity in the NHS and social services to deal with growing mental health demands.
Mental health patients should not be the responsibility of the police unless they’ve committed a crime. You can imagine the situation arise where the police shoot a mentally ill person, who dies leaving the officer involved to explain why he shot and killed a schizophrenic while the health care professionals wash their hands of the situation.
For too long we have had to stand by watching our public services struggle to cope with the task, through overzealous administrators tying people up in needless red tape, poor leadership and political meddling. The constant lack of resources, manpower and generally low morale, has created a “pass the buck” culture within our public institutions.
Mental health issue? NHS can’t deal with it; leave it to the police. Swimming pool closing? Council blames Westminster, Westminster blames Holyrood, Holyrood blames the council. Asylum seekers in a hotel near you? MP blames the Home Office, Home Office blames the contractor, the contractor is not obliged to speak to the public, and so on.
The Homeland Party would introduce a different culture to the public sector: people would be expected to do their job correctly and with the necessary resources. Departments would work with and not against one another, stopping this culture of passing the buck; it will be met head-on, knowing they will have the backing of Homeland and their partners in other services.
