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Mental health nurses are likely to accompany police officers to emergencies where their skills could help defuse the situation in future, according to the Home Affairs Minister.
Deputy Gregory Guida told a Scrutiny Panel this week that sending mental health nurses to cases where there a recognised and specific mental health issue was a “logical next step” for Jersey, which would be following other places that have “external triage teams”.
Jersey already has a form of triage, in that officers will give out the contact details of relevant health specialists at incidents, but nurses do not go out on patrol or attend calls in person.
Adding operational detail, Police Chief Robin Smith told the Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel said: “There are a number of jurisdictions, some of which I’ve worked in, where police officers work with mental health nurses who patrol in police cars and deploy to incidents of mental health crisis.
“That’s what’s described as an external triage team. Of course, we already have a triage team, but it doesn’t deploy operationally but are available for that person to contact them to receive some immediate advice.
“It is true to say that we would like to extend that facility. There are various restrictions in terms of age groups and how often they can be on duty but we would look to increase it because a triage team really does make a difference to people in crisis.”
Pictured: Politicians are due to debate authorising non-firearms officers to carry tasers next months.
Deputy Guida added: “If we had a larger external triage team or access to mental health nurses who are able to out out with officers is logical and makes a lot of sense.”
The plan to create external triage teams came during a discussion around tasers, which Deputy Guida wants to allow non-firearms-trained officers to carry after attending a five-day course.
He says that an eighth-month pilot has not raised any significant issues and tasers are only used when there is a danger to life.
A third of incidents that required police officers to draw a taser during the trial involved a person having a mental health crisis.
From March to November last year, police officers aimed their tasers 22 times, although they were only fired three times. Of those 22, seven related to a “mental health crisis or episode."
However, the police say this is to be expected and aiming a taser “is a proportionate and safe way of resolving incidents where an individual may have otherwise taken action to seriously harm themselves.”
The panel, led by Deputy Rob Ward, raised concerns that more officers carrying tasers may lead to more tasers being used, but the minister said that would not be the case because they are only required in a very small number of scenarios.
The extension of taser use is due to be debated by the States Assembly on 29 March.
Meanwhile, the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel has said it has launched a follow up review of the Government’s mental health services.
The panel’s first Assessment of Mental Health Services report was published on 6 March 2019 and featured 24 key findings, including long waiting times to access mental health services and a lack of investment over a sustained period of time.
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