POLICE officers cannot just turn their backs on mental health cases, even though it\u2019s placing a real strain on force resources, the Chairman of Essex Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Steve Taylor says a new report from Her Majesty\u2019s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) which suggests that officers are \u2018overstretched having to deal with mental health\u2019 was welcome, if a little late.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d struggle to call it timely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s a position we\u2019re aware of, well-rehearsed in. The fact that it\u2019s getting recognition at that level, we\u2019ve got to welcome that eventually.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike we\u2019ve mentioned time and time again, it\u2019s a factor that officers are all too aware of and well versed in, trying to strike that balance between genuine calls for help from those in our community that need us.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn officer might not be the best person to completely resolve that problem but equally we can\u2019t simply turn our backs on those in the community that need us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are learning how to strike that balance, but a real important piece of that puzzle is making sure we\u2019ve got adequate local provision for those in mental health crisis. How much of that is in our control?\u201d<\/p>\n
Officers can\u2019t say no, he added, and that making those sorts of decisions shouldn\u2019t be down to them in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessionally they\u2019re put in jeopardy, and I\u2019d go as far as saying it\u2019s not the officer-on-the-street\u2019s job to say \u2018no\u2019, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a series of command and control in place and officers should be able to have confidence that if it gets to them then it\u2019s gone through the proper checks and that opportunities to safely pass it to other partners have been taken and exhausted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want officers-on-the-streets turning around and saying, \u2018no, actually I think you\u2019ll find there\u2019s a new policy\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn so doing they expose themselves to professional risk and I\u2019d rather officers go to the job and if it turns out they shouldn\u2019t have gone to it in the first place we\u2019ll learn those lessons for next time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we can do is remain professional in our dealing with our partners and try not to point the finger unduly at others who are in an equally precarious position.\u201d<\/p>\n
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POLICE officers cannot just turn their backs on mental health cases, even though it\u2019s placing a real strain on force resources, the Chairman of Essex Police Federation has said. Steve\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4937"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4956,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions\/4956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}