People detained under mental health act in North Yorkshire still held in police cells

Earlier this year a £400,000-a-year "place of safety" unit was opened at Bootham Park Hospital in York and a £250,000-a-year unit opened in Scarborough's Cross Lane Hospital so those detained were taken into specialist care and not custody.

But new figures have shown that 30 per cent of people detained under the mental health act in North Yorkshire are still being taken to police cells - mainly in York and Scarborough.

People were turned away from the specialist unit in York as 68 per cent were deemed too violent and 21 per cent were not able to use it as it was full.

Kerry Owen, a mental health campaigner who has drawn attention to the detentions in North Yorkshire, said: "We know that people who have very disturbed behaviour at at much higher risk of dying in police custody. The Royal College of Psychiatrists guidelines are clear that prolonged restraint is always a medical emergency, that should only be undertaken by staff with medical training and equipment which is available in hospitals but not in police stations.

"There have been many investigations into deaths in police custody which have found this again and again, and I am seriously concerned that the police are not taking these findings seriously, as this is likely to lead to further deaths in police custody in York."

While 57 per cent of the 255 people detained in North Yorkshire from January to September were taken to the "places of safety" in York and Scarborough, almost 13 per cent went to accident and emergency and 30 per cent into custody .

Until this year North Yorkshire had been the last county in the country not to have a place of safety, a situation which police and crime commissioner Julia Mulligan said it was a "disgrace".

She took up the matter on behalf of the family of Toni Speck, a 31-year-old from Huntington who died in June 2011 after being detained under the mental health act at Fulford Road police station.

Now Mrs Mulligan has said that while progress has been made there is "more work to be done".

Section 136 of the mental health act gives police officers the authority to remove a person with an apparent mental disorder from a public place to a “place of safety” for up to 72 hours. North Yorkshire Police said people may not be taken to a place of safety if it is already occupied, if they have committed a criminal offence, are physically unwell or unmanageably resistant or aggressive.

Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick said: “Since January 2014 admissions to police custody for people detained under section 136 of the mental health act have fallen significantly...

“Over the past ten months we have seen three health-based places of safety open across North Yorkshire and the launch of two street triage teams who provide on the spot help for people in crisis."

Earlier this month a Section 136 place of safety was opened in Northallerton as part of a £1m investment by NHS commissioners. Section 136 detainees in Harrogate are brought to York as there is no provision there.

Mrs Mulligan, police and crime commissioner for North Yorkshire, said: “We now have three places of safety across North Yorkshire, which is three more than we had this time last year. These services have been chronically under resourced in the past, good progress has been made, but there is still more work to be done.

“The current situation is not ideal, we are in a better place than we were twelve months ago and our NHS partners are still working to improve things further”.

The NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups for North Yorkshire - which allocate NHS funding - and the Leeds and York NHS Partnership Foundation Trust - which is responsible for mental health provision in the York area - said there was nothing they wanted to add in response.

Mark Winstanley, CEO of Rethink Mental Illness said: “It is worrying that so many people in North Yorkshire with mental health problems are being held in police cells. If you’re going through a mental health crisis, being brought to a police station can be extremely distressing, and should only ever happen as an absolute last resort.

“[It is] positive that local organisations in North Yorkshire have signed up to the Crisis Care Concordat, a national agreement on improving care for people going through the crisis. That means that the police, health professionals and social services have agreed to work together to improve crisis support for local people. We urge them to make this a priority now."

Case study

How can it be appropriate to put a distressed person in police cells?

KERRY Owen was 27 years old when she was wrongly arrested and ended up spending 14 hours in a police cell.

She has been affected by schizoaffective disorder since she was a teenager, but it took her years to access the right treatment.

Now 30 and a researcher in public health, she campaigns that people in crisis should not be held in police cells after she was wrongly arrested and taken to a Gloucestershire police cell due to a lack of available mental-health beds.

“It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life,” Kerry said, “I ended up spending 14 hours in a police cell.

“They strip-searched me and I was not given food or medication.

“There has been report after report and case after case where people who are seriously unwell have been taken to police cells and have died there. How is it possibly therapeutic or appropriate to take somebody who is distressed and put them in a police cells?”

In the West Midlands last year only two per cent of people detained with mental-health problems were taken to police cells – compared with 30 per cent in North Yorkshire, she said.

Ms Owen said: “People in York are not more unwell or disturbed than people in Birmingham, so why is it that someone in York is 15 times more likely to be taken to a police cell than someone in Birmingham?”