Mental health triage project: working together to support our communities

Essex Police is working in partnership with the NHS in a county wide Street Triage programme, in order to help provide the best possible care to people with mental health issues. Four street triage cars staffed by trained officers and mental health professionals from the South Essex NHS Partnership Trust (SEPT) and North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP), are now available in Essex operating seven days a week, between 6pm to 2am. The four cars are based in Harlow, Colchester, Basildon and Rochford, where officers and mental health professionals attend incidents across the county if a person is thought to be in mental health crisis and in need of urgent support or intervention. The person is then assessed by the officers and the professional, who then gets them the assistance they need, if appropriate to do so. This follows the success of a four month pilot which ran three nights a week. During this time 269 individuals were assessed, of which 11 were required to be detained under the Mental Health Act. Others were referred to appropriate services and given advice from the mental health professional present.