Police and Mental Health
Norman Pascal
Chief Inspector
Local Policing Area Commander
Bath & North East Somerset
Police and Mental Health
The majority of people who end up in prison have a mental health condition,
a substance misuse problem or a learning disability and one in four has a
severe mental health illness, such as chronic depression or psychosis.
With this in mind, how much time do you think police officers spend dealing
with people with mental health issues?
The answer is between 15% to 25% of their time. This is a major part of
modern day policing and I would welcome your thoughts on how you feel we
meet this challenge.
Through this presentation I want to give you a better sense of police training,
powers and provisions and answer any questions you may have.
Training for Police Officers
Initial training programme for new recruits
Mental health is a thread running through many elements of policing
Our training provides an overview for officers:
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Increased mental health awareness
Overview of diagnoses
Real life scenarios from people with mental health issues
Treatment & support options
Police powers in relation to mental illness
Tools to support continual good practice
We are not experts and we rely heavily on our partners to guide us and provide the
expert services they do.
Police Powers
Section 135 – Mental Health Act
Section 136 – Mental Health Act
Research & Findings
Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC)
Approximately half of all deaths in or following police custody involve detainees with some form of
mental health problem
Long accepted that police custody is not a suitable place of safety.
Police custody should only be used as a last resort but it is used far too frequently.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)
The use of police cells as a place of safety was far from exceptional
Those detained under section 136 may be detained for up to 72 hours, without any requirement for
review during this period
Those arrested may generally only be detained for 24 hours, with their detention regularly reviewed to
ensure that it is still appropriate.
New Arrangements
A new agreement between police and the NHS seeks to improve mental health
crisis care.
• The use of police cells as a place of safety to be halved
• The agreement called "crisis care concordat" was signed by 22 national
organisations, including the Department of Health, the Home Office and the
charity Mind.
• Aims to dramatically improve provision for those having a mental health crisis
• It challenges local services to make sure beds are always available for people
who need them urgently and that police custody should never be used just
because mental health services are not available.
Local Changes
In February a new four bed mental health place of safety facility opened its
doors at Southmead Hospital
This facility is for those detained in Bristol, North Somerset, BANES and South
Gloucestershire and replaces the one bed provision previously at Callington
Road
• This represents real progress in ensuring those who are most vulnerable
receive the support they need
• A result of significant partnership working between all agencies
• There is still more work to do to further increase provision of places of
safety across the force area and we will continue to do so.
Appropriate Adults
At the last meeting, the subject of appropriate adults was raised by Jude from
Bath Mind.
An appropriate adult must be called whenever we detain or interview a child
(aged 10 to 17) or a vulnerable adult
Current provision has been running for about 4 yrs, and has 9 volunteer members
This will increase to 60 volunteers that can provide cover 24/7 by July 2014
In the future the training package designed by the national appropriate adult
network will be used to provide further independence and a nationally
consistently level of training for volunteers.
Any Questions?