Mental Health - 765/19

Date Responded 22 July 2019

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

In each year 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018:

How many incidents were flagged as mental health related?
How many incidents did you deal with overall?
Do you/did you have a triage vehicle/s designated to deal with mental health incidents in these years?
If the answer was yes to the above question, how many times was the triage vehicle called out each year?

In Response:

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted within Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held, in part, by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

2014	8,690
2015	9,113
2016	8,486
2017	8,227
2018	8,831

2014	439,112
2015	428,265
2016	420,935
2017	435,862
2018	424,797

3.We have 2 triage vehicles – one supplied by ourselves and the other supplied by Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust (NTW).

Street Triage began in Northumbria Police in September 2014. The model used is that of a MH nurse and police officer working alongside each other in an unmarked vehicle. Where appropriate they will meet with individuals in crisis face to face. Initially the team only covered the areas of Sunderland, South Tyneside and Gateshead before being extended to also cover Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland from June 2015. There are 2 teams on duty every day covering the force area between 10 am and 3am. Street Triage are also involved with helping to develop individual care plans.

4. The figures below indicate all incidents dealt with by street triage including face to face assessments, assisting with MHA warrants and information shares etc.

2014 – 425 from 01/09/14

2015 – 1631

2016 – 3334

2017 – 3838

2018 – 6151

2019 – 4211 up to 170719.

Total – 19590 in total since commission

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.