A teenage girl who was held in police custody due to mental health problems has been transferred to a hospital bed after a senior police officer took to Twitter to express concerns about her “unacceptable” situation.
In a rare public expression of disapproval, Paul Netherton, assistant chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, claimed that the girl had been held in police custody for two days because there were “no beds available”.
“The 16-year-old was detained on Thursday night, sectioned on Friday lunchtime and still no place of safety was available. This can’t be right!” he wrote on Twitter, using the hashtag ‘unacceptable”.
. “Custody on a Fri & Sat is no place for a child suffering mental health issues. Nurses being sourced to look after her in custody!?!”
Netherton revealed that the girl was detained while she was at Torbay hospital after causing a breach of the peace. She was sectioned by doctors on Friday under section 3 of the Mental Health Act. However, Devon and Cornwall police were told there were “no beds available anywhere in the UK”.
“We do have a problem in that we ... this last year, in Devon and Cornwall alone, had 750 people with mental health issues being detained in police stations,” he said. “Now obviously we try to move them on to appropriate accommodation.
“What concerns us in this case, and it’s certainly a problem across the country, talking to my colleagues, is the fact that it involves children. And I do not think there’s sufficient provision for children who suffer mental health issues and need to be detained in an emergency situation like this.”
Following Netherton’s comments, a spokesman for NHS England said last night that they had secured a bed for the girl and that she would be moved to a “place more appropriate for her care”. In a statement, it added: “After details were provided to NHS England about the girl and her condition a place was found locally within a few hours. We are grateful for the help of the NHS in the area in identifying the place.
“It is worth noting that mental health crisis services have been expanding so that the number of people ending up in police cells is in fact down – but clearly more needs to be done.”
Luciana Berger, the shadow health minister, said the situation had become worryingly common. “This is an appalling reflection of the crisis in mental health services and the Government must get to grips with it. People shouldn’t face the indignity of being kept in police cells when they are at their most vulnerable,” she said.
