Five fold hike in PSNIcall outs to mentally ill

There's been a massive hike in the number of people with mental health problems involved in incidents reported to the PSNI over the past six years, it's been revealed.

Five times as many incidents involving people suffering from, or appearing to suffer from, a mental disorder (15,147), were reported in 2015, as compared with (3,144) in 2010.

And there were more such incidents (4,626) in the first four months of this year alone than in the whole of 2010.

The figure rose each year from 4,764 in 201; to 6,953 in 2012; to 8,680 in 2013; to 11,032 in 2014; before exploding in 2015.

“Forces are reminded that they should ensure that appropriate risk assessments have been carried out in response to calls considered or perceived to have a mental health or delusional cause or contributory factor,” the PSNI stated.

“Staff should not assume that callers have mental health issues simply on the basis that the caller fails to respond or gives unexpected responses. The caller may have difficulty hearing or understanding. Where staff are uncertain it is suggested that they seek the advice of a supervisor.”

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