Mental health nurses on hand to help police keep people safe TRIAL SCHEME MADE PERMANENT

A DEDICATED team of mental health nurses is working with police in Huddersfield to help vulnerable members of the public who are in crisis.

Three Police Liaison Practitioners are based in the heart of the police dispatch ‘Command Hub’ at Huddersfield’s Castlegate Police Station.

The service was set up two years ago under a pilot scheme with two nurses but due to its success a third nurse was appointed and it’s now been given indefinite funding.

One of the nurse practitioners, Gail Tinker, who is deputy team manager, explained how the team works: “Our role is to support anyone who has come into contact with police who may be presenting with mental health problems.

“We can assist police officers who are responding to an incident by providing professional medical opinions in ‘realtime’ situations.

“When people are in distress they often ring 999, but it may not be a police matter.

“For example, a woman rings police about problems with housing and during the call she says she may end her own life. We can talk to the woman on the phone, check for medical history or even if she is a frequent caller and establish whether or not there needs to be an assessment.

“In any situation we need to know that whenever our contact ends, whether that be in person or on the phone, that they are safe.”

Sometimes calls from members of the public can instantly flag up alarm bells. Gail added: “We’ve had people ringing police saying there are people coming into their house through cracks in the bricks.

“We also deal with missing person enquiries, dementia sufferers and those with learning difficulties.

“Being based in Huddersfield police station means we see logs of calls coming in to the police and can pick up anything which has a flavour of mental health to it.

“We work 12-hour shifts and cover the busier evening and late-night period when other services aren’t available. We can respond immediately, which can assist the police in freeing up officers to other calls.”

A large part of the mental health teams’ work is signposting people to other services.

Gail added: “Not everyone we speak to will have a mental health problem. Part of our role is also to establish whether they do have mental health problems and if so whether there is a care plan in place.

“Someone may say they have mental health problems but actually they are suffering from drug and alcohol problems and we can signpost them to the appropriate services.

“We can speed things up for the police and negotiate for them, which allows officers to leave to carry on their duties.”

She added: “I’m proud that the pilot scheme was made permanent and we can continue to offer the service.

“We know from attending conferences that the service is run differently in other areas of the country. In Birmingham they have mental health nurses going out with police officers and paramedics.

“We have found being based in the police station allows us to be at the heart of the operation and help many people who need our service.”

Gail and her team are employed by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust and their roles are funded by Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group.