Enter and view: NELFT Mental Health Street Triage Scheme

This report sets out the findings of Healthwatch Havering’s participation/visit in the regular management meeting for the NELFT ‘Mental Health Street Triage Scheme’. The NELFT Mental Health Street Triage Scheme is operated by NELFT in association with the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police (BTP) and London Ambulance Service (LAS), all who (besides the LAS) had a representative present in the meeting.

This is part of HW Havering’s aim to visit all health and social care facilities in the borough, and to ensure services delivered are acceptable and safe.

The report discusses the details and development of the scheme and the challenges faced in reaching their goals. The discussion in the meeting focussed on police use of section 136 of the Mental Health Act, 1983, as a means to deal with incidents in public. This was not the ideal situation as the police custody area was not safe for people with mental health.

Another objective of the team was to stop people, suffering from mental health issues, being taken to an A&E, as that is not the ideal place for them.

The triage team, who typically attend 2-3 incidents a day, had recently merged with the Acute Service Response Team which resulted in a change of its hours, leaving the police, at other times, to deal with such incidents and attempting to “maintain peace” without the proper training or team.

The British Transport Police’s main concern was to reduce suicide on the railways and to train their staff to deal with that.

HW Havering concluded that the street triage scheme is an excellent idea that will lead to an improved service for people suffering from mental health crises in a public place. It will also ensure that police officers will no longer have to deal unnecessarily with events using their Section 136 powers. It is an innovation that deserves support and development, not least as a cost-effective alternative to dealing with people in mental health crisis by putting them at risk of being dealt with inappropriately through the criminal justice system.

HW Havering made the following recommendations:

To NELFT: Consider operating the scheme for longer hours than at present (ideally 24-hour); All police officers in the BHR area to be given training to enable them to cope confidently with people undergoing a mental health crisis without resorting to section 136 powers; The scope for use of a dedicated LAS vehicle to convey triage team members to an accident should be explored with the LAS and police.

To the LAS: Effort should be made to ensure that an LAS officer of suitable seniority attends future meetings of the Street Triage Team; The possibility of a dedicated LAS vehicle to convey triage team members to an accident be explored with NELFT and the police.

To the Metropolitan Police and BTP: Officers in the BHR should receive training to enable them to cope confidently with people undergoing a mental health crisis without unnecessarily resorting to their Section 136 powers.

To the BHR and Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Groups: To make sure this scheme is supported, and adequate funding is received for the recommendations mentioned above.