UK Deploying Mental Health Nurses to Police Stations

Mental health nurses to be posted in police stations
The Guardian
Haroon Siddique
January 3, 2014

£25m pilot scheme to ensure people get the treatment they need and cut reoffending will initially run in 10 areas

Mental health nurses are to be posted in police stations and courts in a £25m pilot scheme designed to ensure people receive the treatment they need and cut reoffending rates.

The government scheme, which will initially run in 10 areas and be rolled out across the rest of the country by 2017 if successful, was welcomed by mental health campaigners, confident that it would prove its worth.

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.

"Too often people with mental health illnesses who come into contact with the criminal justice system are only diagnosed when they reach prison," said care and support minister Norman Lamb. "We want to help them get the right support and treatment as early as possible. Diverting the individual away from offending and helping to reduce the risk of more victims suffering due to further offences benefits everyone."
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