Ipswich and Bury to get new mental health crisis response after funding agreed

PUBLISHED: 05:30 05 March 2019

Jason Noble Local democracy reporter

David Cutler from Suffolk police said the new pilot would reduce emergency department attendances and police and ambulance calls. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN

Sarah Lucy brown

Tim Passmore, Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner, said Suffolk mental health had been the 'pariah' service for too long. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN

Suffolk police and the county’s clinical commissioning groups are set to adopt the Serenity Integrated Mentoring scheme, which was piloted by the Isle of Wight in 2013.

It features mental health professionals and police coming together in joint teams where they intensively support high risk and frequent patients struggling to manage in crisis.

Suffolk Constabulary put in a bid for £71,000 from the Suffolk Public Sector Leaders group of council leaders and chief executives, with the Ipswich and East Suffolk and West Suffolk clinical commissioning groups alongside police contributing the remaining £71,000.

Suffolk police’s temporary assistant chief constable David Cutler said: “They [Isle of Wight] have shown sustained positive outcomes from this approach.

“What we are looking for are reduced calls for services, ambulance and police, and emergency department admissions.”

The funding bid report said that combining the clinical expertise of mental health teams with the police meant “service users could start to change their key crisis decisions and consider healthier and safer responses to often highly complex emotions”.

The scheme will be a two year pilot which runs in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, as these are the two areas with highest demand.

Police and crime commissioner Tim Passmore said: “I am fully supportive of this.

“It’s very much a problem in society, and an increasing problem.

“Unfortunately Suffolk has been very much a pariah service for too long.

“This will actively use evidence to show how we can do better in the future.”

The plan follows the announcement by the CCGs in January of a major revamp in primary mental healthcare services, which included better access to mental health provision through GP surgeries and an overhauled approach to crisis calls.

The county’s lead mental health service, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, was given a third ‘inadequate’ rating by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission late last year.

St Edmundsbury Borough Council deputy leader Sara Mildmay-White however said: “It does concern me that we are picking up the tab for a failing mental health service really.”