The Metropolitan police has won its battle to stop attending most of the mental health calls it receives after a tense behind-the-scenes row with the health service, the Guardian has learned.
From 31 October the Met will start implementing a scheme that aims to stop officers being diverted from crime fighting to do work health staff are better trained for.
In May, the Guardian revealed that the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, had written to health and social care leaders setting a deadline of 31 August – leading to furious reaction from health chiefs who wrote to the commissioner protesting that it would put vulnerable people at risk.
This is obviously right but the Met has just cut (what it says is) 7% of its workload and handed it to a dangerously underfunded NHS without any funding attached.
Well, Met is dangerously underfunded itself.
meanwhile in 'Murica
This is the best summary I could come up with:
From 31 October the Met will start implementing a scheme that aims to stop officers being diverted from crime fighting to do work health staff are better trained for.
One health source with knowledge of the discussions told the Guardian the commissioner’s hard line was disliked, but had worked: “He got us round the table, got our attention and got us talking.
The letter sent on Thursday says: “In practice, this means that police call handlers will receive a new prompt relating to welfare checks or when a patient goes absent from health partner inpatient care.
The prompt will ask call handlers to check that a police response is required or whether the person’s needs may be better met by a health or care professional.”
Rowley’s letter in May summoned health and social care chiefs to meetings, which were held at the Met’s Scotland Yard central London headquarters and NHS offices in Waterloo.
The first the Met is expected to implement arecalls to check on welfare, for instance where a mental health patient has missed an appointment and where there is no intelligence of harm.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
