Right Care, Right Person is an approach designed to ensure that people of all ages, who have health and/or social care needs, are responded to by the right person, with the right skills, training, and experience to best meet their needs.

Though the approach can be applied more broadly than cases relating to mental health, this document is focused on the interface between policing and mental health services, as one step towards implementing RCRP.

At the centre of the RCRP approach is a threshold to assist police in making decisions about when it is appropriate for them to respond to incidents, including those which relate to people with mental health needs. The threshold for a police response to a mental health-related incident is:

  • to investigate a crime that has occurred or is occurring; or
  • to protect people, when there is a real and immediate risk to the life of a person, or of a person being subject to or at risk of serious harm

Alert:

If you are concerned that a person is at risk of life or serious harm, please contact 999 immediately and the police will respond.

If you are concerned about your own or someone else's wellbeing, please contact call 111 and select option 2 to speak to a mental health professional.

Right Care, Right Person is being implemented in different stages. Collaborative working is underwayto make arrangements to work towards ending police involvement in the following situations, where the RCRP threshold is not met:

  • initial response to people experiencing mental health crisis.
  • responding to concerns for welfare of people with mental health needs (i.e., undertaking welfare checks), where the person is already in contact with a mental health service or other service commissioned to provide mental health support.
  • instances of missing persons from mental health facilities, and walkouts of people with mental health needs from other health facilities (e.g., the Emergency Department).
  • conveyance in police vehicles

These are being carefully considered to ensure people in these situations are reponded by a qualified individual to assess and treat the person's needs.

 

Update: On Monday 18 November 2024, we will be launching our next phase of Right Care Right Person. This phase will concentrate on Section 135 and Section 136 Mental Health Act. BCHFT will implement 24/7 Mental Health UCR helpline, which will be made available to Police Officers seeking professional advice when considering to enact their legal powers to detain. This will go live at 9:00 on Monday 18 November 2024. The collective aim will be to divert from S136 MHA detentions and explore other alternative pathways. However, there will be cases where S136 MHA power to detain will need to be utilised, and detained persons will be conveyed to our Places of Safety, or Emergency Departments for treatment and Mental Health Act Assessment.

Resources:

- The following document contains the section 136 pathway flowchart, the escalation process, risk assessment, and clinical and legal responsibilities information:

Section 136 Pathway Document

- The following document contains an indicator for police involvement in a place of safety or emergency department setting:

Police Involvement Indicator - Place of Safety or ED

- The following video is a useful resource from West Midlands Police explaining the changes for section 136 patients:

 

Resources