End scandal of mentally ill being held in police cells, MPs say

A Home Affairs Committee report released in February revealed that last year, over 200 children and

about 6,000 adults with mental health issues were detained in police cells under section 136 of the
Mental Health Act due to a shortage in National Health Service (NHS) hospital facilities. Under the
section, persons with mental health problems can legally be held in either a hospital or a police
station for up to three days (72 hours). The report calls for a change in the law which would exclude
police cells from being considered a “place of safety.”

NHS hospitals may be a safer place for children suffering a mental breakdown, but police have been
forced to use police cells as shelters when there isn’t enough space in hospitals. The report was
released after a 16-year-old mentally ill teenage girl was detained for two days in a police cell thanks
to a severe lack of hospital bed availability. NHS England has since apologised to her and her family,
deeming her treatment “unacceptable.”

The report pointed out that there has been a “clear failure” of NHS clinical commissioning groups to
give proper care to children with mental-health issues. It condones the practice of transporting
people undergoing mental health crises to hospitals by way of police cars, as it frequently adds to
the distress of a patient (ambulances should be used instead). It also called for NHS clinical
commissioning groups to acknowledge the demand for mental health facilities.

Police themselves have expressed their unhappiness with having to spend too much time tending to
people who require mental health care. The Police Federation of England and Wales has asked
ministers to address the issues with the NHS, and many local authorities in England have pledged to
ban the practice. Mental health leader of the federation Doug Campbell acknowledged that “Police
officers can never be an adequate replacement for medical staff.”