Why calling to de-fund the Met Police as they withdraw from answering mental health callouts is completely wrong.

‘De-funding the police began over ten years ago with austerity cuts and the results we have now are due to this.’

Figures released in 2022 showed that emergency mental health callouts were taking more than two hours instead of seven minutes.

More than 23% of patients waiting to start mental health treatment, wait more than 12 weeks.

For children in schools, to access CAHMS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service) the wait can be more than 18 weeks.

There is a gap between the number of people waiting in need, some of whom are high risk, to the number of professionals available.

There are now many, many families who have been victims of knife crime, who are in desperate need of mental health treatment, both teenagers and families, yet there is a lack of help for most.

There is an endless list of teenagers who have been threatened with a knife and are now suffering with depression and failing to leave their house in fear. These youths are desperate for mental health treatment and the chances of them accessing any, is very small. There is very little support for the child or its parents.

Our mental health facilities are struggling, yet the focus of the recent withdrawal by the Met Police to answer mental health calls outs has been on the police and not on the decline of our mental health facilities as it should be.

The failure here is not on the police, and those who are using this recent withdrawal to further their calls for the de-funding of the Met Police, should actually be looking at the very serious issue of access to mental health facilities.

Police officers are far from being mental health practitioners, yet they have for many years now, assumed this role under further criticism. Now, that they have openly held their hands up and stated that they are not mental health experts and identified that these calls should rightly be responded to by those who do have the correct credentials to deal with them, they are being told this adds to further calls of de-funding the Met.

It seems which ever way they turn, the criticism is there regardless.

Our mental health facilities should be reviewed urgently here. Society is struggling with a cost of living crisis that has placed huge pressures on families. These pressures frequently impact people’s mental health. Parents struggle to put food on the table for their families. Husbands and dads can feel more strain as they frequently struggle with not being able to provide enough for their family. Yet who do they turn to?

We have seen more support groups for men appear across the capital, walk and talk groups where men have the ability to join other males and share their burdens.

Mothers raising children on their own, struggling to work with the increase pressures society is piling on. Having to be the sole money earner and providing everything for their children. Who supports their mental health needs as the cost of living crisis bites hard?

All these factors should be addressed before we once again point the finger at the Met Police.

Due to these shortages, the community has been relying on our police force to respond to mental health call outs. One in five calls responded to by the Met was a mental health call out. Officers are also frequently used as a form of ambulance service and spend long hours waiting in hospitals.

It is time we began to look at the very serious under funding issues our mental health services have faced.Now, more than ever, with the endless pressures all households are facing, must we look at the structure of our mental health facilities.

De-funding police forces began many years ago. What we are left with now is the clear result of police de-funding. Over ten years ago officers desperately informed us that these cuts would have consequences and here we are.

It is our mental health services that need to be reviewed here, police officers are not mental health experts and should never have been placed in that role. The shortage of mental health staff and services has seen them assume this role and this has increased over the years.

Society needs to have the facilities in place to support its many needs such as health care, welfare, and education.Police officers have become mental health experts, social workers, youth workers, all rolled into one.

It is not the time to point your finger at our already de-funded police force, but time to call for improvements to our mental health services.

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