Mental Health Triage (284A/21)
Request
I would like to know whether your force has any such Mental Health Triage scheme.
In response to the rising number of detentions by police under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983, many police forces within the UK have introduced Street Triage schemes with Health partners.
These schemes can be where mental health professionals work in a force control room advising officers before they exercise their power to detain using S.136.
Alternatively, there are schemes where forces have a mental health triage car, which can involve a police officer and mental health professional attending an incident.
There may also be other variations which are also described as Triage schemes.
You may have created an alternative to a Triage scheme such as training a limited number of officers to a higher level to deal with mental health incidents.
I note to seek the following information:
- What form/s it takes?
- When it started and if it is not running at present, when it finished?
- What coverage it has e.g., 24 hours a day 7 days a week etc.
- Has your scheme been evaluated, if so, where can I locate a copy?
- If you do not have a Triage scheme do you have an alternative, if so, could you briefly describe it?
- Does your force have a review mechanism for service users who come in to contact with mental health street triage?
If so:
- Who is involved in the review mechanism?
Response
We can confirm that relevant information is held by West Midlands Police. However, while the majority of the information is attached to this email, I am not required to release all of the information requested. Please see the attached documents and note the redactions are shown as white spaces.
REASONS FOR DECISION
The redacted information is exempt by virtue of the following exemption:
Section 40(2) – Personal information
This exemption and explanatory notes are shown here:
Section 40(2) is an absolute and class based exemption if to release the information exists would breach the third party’s data protection rights. In this case to release this personal information would not constitute fair processing of the data. As this exemption is class based I am not required to identify the harm in disclosure and in this instance I believe that the right to privacy outweighs any public interest in release.