Mental Health Act

I listened to Jeremy Hunt talking about this and came to the conclusion that he doesn't know what he's talking about.

He talked about stopping people being locked up in police cells unnecessarily, but not about where they're going to go. Approximately 6,700 mental health nurse jobs have been cut from the NHS since 2010. Replacing them now will cost money, take time and only get us back to 2010.

One of my sisters did her RMN training (after SRN) at Rainhill Hospital. Anybody who comes from the North West has probably heard of it. At one time, it was the biggest mental hospital in Europe with over 2000 patients. We don't want to go back to those times. Some of the patients had been in there most of their lives, some because they had committed the "sin" of becoming single mothers.

The trouble is that when it closed, seriously ill people were expected to live in the community with no robust plans in place and, over the years, community services have been slashed. If Hunt is serious, he needs to commit serious money (billions) to the issue. There's a need for humane, secure units with highly skilled staff.

This has really got me worried . I think thry are scrapping the present act and brining in a new one regarding ill people being locked in cells . Great if there emergency units to take ill people to but will they fund these?

I am not attacking the police , I fear this is yet another wild scheme to win votes and I realy am fearful

I don't know what changes to the existing legislation are to be made. I do know that the police has become the only emergency service for many people with mental health issues.
This is in part due to cuts to mental health services, including those who supported people with dependence on drugs and alcohol.
I suspect one issue is the beat bobbies are expected to deal with everything that comes in during their shift. It can be difficult to differentiate between a psychotic episode and someone who has been using drugs.
My experience over 35 years of working closely with the police was that generally, officers are skilled at reducing aggression. They are not trained in mental health in the way that psychiatric social workers or mental health staff specialising in mental health are. In the absence of other professionals with the necessary theoretical knowledge, they do the best they can.
At the risk of sounding like a record on repeat - central government needs to invest more in these services, not cut them to the bone and expect miracles to happen.

I feel this goes back to 2003 when 'care in the community' was first introduced. Many units for the mentally ill were closed with the patients being supported outside in the community with support workers. Sadly times have changed due to cuts to social services and support workers were not always replaced at the point of retirement, leaving the job etc. in effect to try and save money. Now we have a massive problem on our hands and these poor souls are left to fend for them selves with minimal support.