La consegna dei poteri di polizia del personale del SSN per trattenere i pazienti con salute mentale avrebbe conseguenze pericolose, avvertono gli organi sanitari
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nhs-mental-health-detention-police-b2757561.html
di insomnimax_99
3 commenti
This would be terrible. Patients can already be very hostile in response to detention under the mental health act. Having mental health professionals also be the ones to detain them from home or in public can only be more damaging
This would require a ton of training to be done properly, but it would relive the police service to do other more important duty’s such as mobile speed cameras
The NHS should be taking the lead on mental health jobs, I don’t think that’s arguable. Police should have some involvement, but it should be brief and limited as below.
A) Incident comes in where there is a concern for the mental health of a person, and a risk of them or others coming to harm. NHS staff should take primacy, and police should be considered as a backup in case there is a risk of violence. However the NHS staff should either be completing their assessment there, or arranging transport to a Mental Health suite for a full assessment by their own means, not relying on police to transport or sit with that person for hours awaiting assessment. If there’s minimal anticipated risk of violence or harm then police may not be needed
B) If the person who there are concerns for is a missing person by current police standards, this should be ran by police, however once located if it’s deemed appropriate to section that person to ensure they get an assessment, this should be a case of attending the MH assessment facility, placing the person in a secure room and handing over to staff both physical responsibility for the patient and also completing a handover either verbally or written for the MH services to inform their assessment of the patient.
Police should not be sitting and waiting for hours with persons suffering with their mental health. That’s not right for the patient, that’s not right for the police, and that’s not right for victims of crime who can’t get a response because the cops are stuck with the patient.
I’d like to see the above put on some statutory footing, but then I’d also want some significant investment to be made for mental health services, for outpatients, for mental health suites, for their own security and training, etc.