Police stations are not appropriate places for people who need urgent help for a crisis in their mental health, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health chief executive Angela Greatley said today.
Today a new power is introduced to allow a person who is detained in a 'Place of Safety' under the Mental Health Act to be moved to another location before they are assessed. The new power means people who are taken by police officers to a police station can be moved to a hospital or care home.
Angela Greatley said: "People who are picked up in public places by the police in an emergency are highly vulnerable. A police station is never the best place for such people to be kept for as much as three days. Police officers are rarely trained to manage their needs and the risk of suicide is very high.
"We welcome the Government's recognition that police stations should only be used 'on an exceptional basis' as place of safety. The new law may help to reduce the time people currently spend in police stations but will not prevent it altogether.
"We call today for further action in every locality to ensure that better places of safety are made available and police stations never get used in this way. Currently an estimated 11,000 people are detained in police stations as places of safety each year. Many police forces say they have no alternative to using police stations as places of safety. This has to stop."
'Places of Safety' are used under Sections 135 and 136 of the 1983 Mental Health Act for police officers to take individuals they believe may need to be assessed on treated compulsorily. They can be used for up to 72 hours to detain those picked up in a public place or who have been removed from premises where they are suspected of having been neglected or ill-treated.
Today's law change means a person who is taken to one place of safety can be taken to a different place of safety by a police officer or an approved mental health worker if this is felt to be necessary in their case.
We are investigating the role of the police in mental health and will report later in 2008.