FEATURE: A recent evaluation of the roll out of the ‘Right Care, Right Person’ approach to responding to mental health crises has identified savings in police time allowing forces to free up resources for other priorities – but challenges around decision-making, communications, and the funding and capacity constraints for other agencies are also hampering the effective implementation of the scheme across England and Wales, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: With the police response to those in mental health distress – whether in relation to safeguarding, crime or public protection – a challenge for policing globally, Edge Hill University’s Dr Jude Towers looks at the results of the mental health diversion and advisory panel initiative in Lancashire, which offers an alternative out-of-court disposal approach to mental health-related offending that is winning support from officers as well as those in crisis.

FEATURE: While law enforcement agencies around the world look at co-responder models and health partnerships to answer the growing demands of those in mental health crisis, new research from the US suggests that teaming up mental health clinicians with police officers to respond to behavioural health-related calls has no better outcome in terms of reducing arrests or improving treatment engagement than simply sending a uniformed officer, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A review of the New South Wales Police response to those in mental health crisis has recommended that the force switch to the Right Care, Right Person model pioneered in the UK, after identifying that a law enforcement presence can often be an “escalating factor” for those experiencing a mental health crisis, while the over-reliance on a police response can increase risks and stretch resources, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: After its introduction by Humberside Police, the mental health policing approach Right Care, Right Person has been rolled out nationally in England and Wales; but a new announcement from New Zealand Police – a four-phase plan to reduce mental health demand on frontline officers and encourage health partners to take more of a lead – suggests it’s changing international practice too, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

INNOVATION: With the police response to those in mental health crisis coming increasingly under focus, Brunel University’s Amy Everitt, and Dr Cody Porter and Dr Paul Gavin from UWE Bristol, highlight the key elements of a new multi-agency training approach held at Brunel University earlier this year, providing real-world immersive scenarios as well as expert insight for frontline emergency responders.

ANALYSIS: New research by Deakin University PhD Candidate Jess Woolley has highlighted how some perpetrators of family violence are weaponising suicide threats, leading to concerns among police officers that addressing the mental health of the perpetrator as a priority can subsequently leave victim-survivors at risk and without adequate protection.

ANALYSIS: Police in New Zealand – as with many other jurisdictions – are facing significant growth in callouts to mental health incidents, and are considering various approaches; new research by Auckland University of Technology Associate Professor Katey Thom, and Sarah Gordon, Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Otago, suggests that shifting to a trauma-informed support system could improve responses and reduce police involvement.

LONG READ: The response to those in mental health crisis has been a major concern for many in policing, with the growing view that uniformed officers are not the most appropriate to deploy to many mental health-related calls; as UK policing continues to adopt the Right Care, Right Person approach, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons takes a closer look at efforts by police forces in Australia and New Zealand to address the challenge.

OPINION: Last week it was confirmed that most police forces across the UK have now adopted the Right Care, Right Person approach to those in mental health crisis; but given its unique policing environment, the British Transport Police will be implementing an alternative initiative, as Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi explains.

FEATURE: With mental health policing under increased focus for forces across the UK, Thames Valley Police has established dedicated mental health officer posts to improve data gathering and monitoring, share best practice, and help to embed the Right Care, Right Person approach; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Insp Penny Jones about the aims of the initiative.

OPINION: Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley’s recent decision to end the routine attendance of officers in response to mental health calls has attracted both support and criticism; Vernon White, former Chief of Police for Ottawa Police Service and Senator in the Canadian Parliament, and Joe Carlebach, former Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health at Hammersmith and Fulham Council, explain why they believe Sir Mark has made the right call.

LONG READ: As policing globally faces significant challenges around effective responses to those in mental health crises, Western Australia Sgt Glen Blackwell, the force’s first Mental Health Co-Response Trainer, received a Churchill Fellowship award to establish diversionary practices for mentally and intellectually disabled persons engaging police; this long-read article, based on his final report to the Churchill Trust, explores international best practice, and makes recommendations for police in Australia that could also benefit other forces.

OPINION: As the debate around the most effective police or partner agency response to those in mental health crisis continues, David Marshall, a serving officer with more than 30 years’ experience who is also a part-time policing lecturer and PhD researcher, explores how policing has become the default agency dealing with what is often a health emergency, and why any long-term strategy must recognise that law enforcement is often not the right responder.

ANALYSIS: There has been a lot of sympathy for the concerns voiced by policing the UK that officers are often not the right people to respond to those in mental health crisis, and plenty of support for the Right Care, Right Person approach; but Dr Meron Wondemaghen, a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Hull, fears that trying to push through such significant change by a 31 August deadline will leave the health sector unable to cope, and those in crisis lacking the support they need.

OPINION: The announcement by the Metropolitan Police that it plans to withdraw from attending mental health incidents unless they involve a threat to life has reignited the debate around policing’s role in responding to those in mental health crisis; Dr David Lydon, a former officer and now Senior Lecturer in Professional Policing, believes dropping what is a critical aspect of everyday policing is a mistake, and a betrayal of the service’s social responsibility.

OPINION: With the recent announcement by the Met Police that they will only attend mental health 999 calls where there is an “immediate threat to life”, the issue of the emergency service response to those in mental health crisis in the UK is once again under the spotlight; former Police Scotland superintendent Martin Gallagher looks at the history of ‘care in the community’, and argues that it should be mental health professionals – not police – who take the lead role in that response.

OPINION: The increasing demands on policing to respond to those in mental health crises are creating significant burdens on police resources, and a potentially inadequate service to the public; Vernon White, former Chief of Police for Ottawa Police Service and Senator in the Canadian Parliament, and Joe Carlebach, former Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health at Hammersmith and Fulham Council, believe the solution is to address the systemic problems in mental health care rather than more training for police officers.

LONG READ: Humberside Police’s Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) initiative has transformed how the force handles mental health incidents, freeing up officers to focus on fighting crime – and with RCRP set to roll out nationwide, policing’s approach to these incidents is about to change significantly; but there’s a more complex story to tell about policing’s role in mental health work, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: Vulnerable members of the community experiencing mental health challenges account for a significant proportion of repeat callers to the police and other services; but Occupational Therapy Degree student Bridget Townsend believes a pilot project in which occupational therapists accompany police officers in response to those repeat callers could improve the service to individuals while reducing the resource burden on policing.

FEATURE: A new review by the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody has called for closer partnerships between policing, health and other criminal justice agencies to address mental health issues and help to prevent deaths in custody as well as suicides after release from police custody, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: As police forces around the world struggle to meet the growing demand of emergency calls related to people’s mental health problems, Austin Police Department in Texas has introduced a clinician-based ‘mental health crisis’ option for 911 callers which has improved the service to the public, cut use of force and arrest rates, and enabled officers to prioritise the response to crime, as Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend reports.

FEATURE: Improving mental health and wellbeing for police, as well as the response to those in mental health crisis, is a key concern for law enforcement globally; Jacqueline Durand, Acting Director (Strategy) at the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA), looks at what is being done in both countries to support officers, as well as efforts to respond collaboratively with paramedics and mental health to those community members in crisis.

FEATURE: The burden of mental health callouts on police across New Zealand could be significantly reduced if a multi-agency response model that has proven successful during trials in Wellington is approved – and funded – for use across all Police districts, as Ellen Brook of the New Zealand Police Association explains.