Street Triage Service extended to support more people in mental health crisis
The Trust's Street Triage Team is being extended to help more people in mental health crisis when they need it. The team is a partnership between the Trust, Nottinghamshire Police and the local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), joining up mental health practitioners and police officers, to provide a specialist response to people with mental health issues, who by a range of circumstances, come into contact with the police and are in need of urgent help.
The team have been hugely successful in reducing the number of patients detained under the Mental Health Act since its development in 2014, and also signposting patients to appropriate services. To further extend the success of this service the team are expanding the hours they will be available. Where previously the shift has started at 4pm, from Monday 21 October it will now include a day car working from 8am in the morning for a trial period of 6 months. Meaning the team will be available to support many more people in crisis.
The service sees specially trained mental health nurses from the Trust join police officers on callouts in unmarked street triage cars throughout Nottinghamshire where vulnerable people need immediate mental health support. The nurses are available to give telephone advice to police officers and help them decide on the appropriate healthcare service to refer to.
After 6 months the extension of the service will be reviewed and a decision will be made as to whether the day service will continue.
Alison Harrison, Service Manager, Nottinghamshire Healthcare said:
“This is an exciting time for the team. We are really pleased we will be available to support more people who need us at a time of mental health crisis. We are looking forward to seeing the positive impact this will have for the citizens of Nottingham.
“We are hoping the data will show a further reduction in detentions under the Mental Health Act and a continued rapid response to patients in mental health crisis that are referred via the police during the day”.
