West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster has issued a statement following recent media reports around Right Care Right Person – a scheme designed to set out how police and health services should improve the response to people with mental health needs.
He said: “There has been recent interest in the media, in connection with the national programme Right Care Right Person. Right Care Right Person was developed and implemented, as a consequence of findings set out in a report by HMICFRS: Policing and Mental Health: Picking Up The Pieces, published in November 2018. That found, amongst many other matters, the police cannot be expected to pick up the pieces of a broken mental health system and that policing needed to be the last resort and not the first port of call.
“I have received regular reports and briefings, on the implementation of the National Partnership Agreement ‘Right Care, Right Person’ in the West Midlands. The health and welfare of people facing acute mental health crisis, must always be the first and paramount consideration. They need treatment and support, from specialist and trained mental health care professionals.
“I have been holding West Midlands Police to account, to ensure that people facing acute mental health crisis, receive the right care, from the right person and at the right time. They need treatment and support from specialist and trained mental health care professionals, not police officers, who can never achieve the standard of care, that specialist and trained mental health care professionals can deliver.
“It is also vital that people facing acute mental health crisis, detained by the police, are assessed and transferred to the care of mental health care professionals as soon as possible. I am committed to continuing to hold West Midlands Police to account and to work with partners, to ensure that we deliver on our collective mission, to protect the public and improve outcomes for vulnerable people, facing acute mental health crisis, across the region.”
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