Police having to deal with more mental health calls

[celeste]

Police deal with more mental health calls, says chief

Action call on anti-social behaviour

Police numbers 'at 11-year low'

Police are spending more time dealing with people who have mental health issues, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police has said.
Sir Peter Fahy said it had become the main issue for officers responding to emergency calls, and the force was struggling to cope.
Incidents officers are called to include dealing with people being actively suicidal or self-harming.
Statistics show these incidents can tie officers up for up to eight hours.
Other incidents police are called to deal with include people acting bizarrely in a public place or to those telephoning the police with paranoid ideas.
Sir Peter said: "We recognise the NHS is under huge strain, but certainly we are very concerned that at a time when we are taking the budget cuts, although crime is going down, that part of our workload which is dealing with dealing with vulnerable people in general, we are seeing steadily increasing."
Paul Reed, from Manchester Users Network, a charity that helps users and ex-users of mental health facilities in Manchester, said patients find their best chance of getting treatment is by getting themselves arrested.
  Police statistics

In 2012, 2.5% of incidents recorded by police in Greater Manchester involved dealing with mental health issues

On average, officers spent 3.5 hours on each, ranging from 40 minutes to eight hours

Between May and December, 218 people were detained and taken for mental health assessment

"The police have a duty of care and by going to the police and saying they are ill the police then have to do something, but then they obviously get moved to mental health services."
The Police Commissioner for Greater Manchester, Tony Lloyd, is to to set aside £200,000 of his budget to buy extra support from health professionals.
He said: "We know that the demand is increasing on the police for people who really should be in the health service.
"What the money is designed to do is to make sure we have a proper partnership between police and health providers.
"It means that we can get the appropriate health professionals involved at the earliest stage."

[julie]

i dunno what is going on but now   Cameron suggests if you live in a council house and have a spare room it has to be let out. would you want someone with mental health issues renting your spare room?

[celeste]

I wouldn't rent out a room to anyone, I think he wants people to downsize and I wonder if he is hoping to use any council house which then becomes empty for immigration reasons    - he shouldn't as there are people who have been on waiting lists for years here

[julie]

that man is very strange well i would suggest 10 downing street is a type of council house so he can rent a few rooms out there.

[Jim44]

The trouble is they come up with these bright idea's without thinking it out properly. Plenty of people would be willing to move, if there was anywhere to move to!

[Bert]

I think a lot of it is caused by the failed care in the community.  A lot of it stems from the five pathways to poverty....  Family breakdown, educational failure, drink and drug addiction and serious personal debt. They shut down the old asylum system years ago without any provision in place. People who are ill (mental health is a recognised illness) are left to fend for themselves and trusted to take their medication with little or no support.  see this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01r3vm5/Newsnight_04_03_2013/#t=880s

[julie]

Well I live in a place called Barming so called because of the asylum apparently that is where the word barmy comes from. Anyways when I moved down sarf it was derilict and a few neighbours warned me to be careful cos some of the inmates had been let loose. houses have been built over the asylums graveyard there is or was a small chapel in the grounds, i know a few nurses who worked there the krays i believe were in there as well it is like a fortress surrounded by a huge stone wall.

[Bert]

That's barmy.... I never knew that.

[sheilanz]

Bert, I have been puzzling for ages of who your picture reminded me. Now I remember the late
Tommy Cooper,   now he was funny,very innocent
out front  but a wily bird for all that.

[celeste]

    Oh well done Sheila it may well be him, I know it's not Bert

[sheilanz]

Hi Celeste, I am awayto bed now, feeling a tad tired
its been dreadfully hot again today28 cel,bit cooler
now at 18c.
Have a good day       Sheila

[celeste]

cya later 

[Bert]

Bert, I have been puzzling for ages of who your picture reminded me. Now I remember the late
Tommy Cooper,   now he was funny,very innocent
out front  but a wily bird for all that.

To be honest Sheila I haven't a clue who it is.... I found the pic on the internet and looked at it and saw some idiot with a condom on his head acting like a prat and then it occurred to me.... That's my perfect avatar.

I loved Tommy Cooper he creased me, I like Ken Dodd and the diddlemen too.... his shows are well worth the money and he always goes over time by a good margin as well. He's good value for money, just deduct the tax when you pay....

[sheilanz]

My name is Dodd!!!!!!I have,nt a tickling stick tho

[julie]

kenn dodd did loads for charity an d my parents went to see him at blackpool tower he always ran over schedule