With Gloucestershire Police announcing they are to cut back on attending mental health calls, our director talks about the importance of them working with other services to plan who will fill this gap
Gloucestershire Police have announced that they are to follow a national scheme known as "Right Care, Right Person" set up by the Met Police. Under this scheme, the police would only respond to mental health emergency calls where there is a risk to life or a risk of serious harm. The Met Police will be following this scheme from September, while Gloucestershire Police have not yet given a timeframe of when they will adopt it.
The director of Cheltenham and District Samaritans spoke to the BBC to support the need for the police to work with other bodies before it follows this route, to ensure that the gap is filled:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-65934845