NO-ONE in Cumbria suffering a mental health crisis should spend time in a police cell or accident and emergency department thanks to the launch of an innovative new service.

Police officers, ambulance workers and social care staff across the county can now use a hotline giving them direct access to mental health specialists who will decide upon the best route of care for anyone in need of help.

Known as the multi agency crisis assessment service, the move has been made possible thanks to a successful £3m bid to the Home Office by Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Peter McCall.

RELATED ARTICLE: Children requiring mental health care held in police cells in Cumbria

It is the first of its kind in the country and has been jointly developed by a range of organisations including Cumbria Constabulary, the Cumbria Partnership NHS Trust, which provides mental health services in the county, and the North West Ambulance Service.

It is hoped the scheme will not only ensure people get the most appropriate help as soon as possible, it will also help free up police and ambulance workers to respond to other calls as they come in.

Part of the project, officially referred to as a proof of concept, will be a crisis assessment centre based at the Carleton Clinic in Carlisle which will have three short stay beds, two interview rooms and can be used as an immediate place of safety for anyone police consider needs an urgent assessment.

Previously, these people may have been taken to the police station or acute care hospital while the county's mental health professionals were contacted.

Senior consultant psychiatrist Stuart Beatson, from the Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs mental health services in the county, said: “We are aware that for patients in mental health crisis, services were not as easy to access as they should be.”

If successful, the scheme should eliminate the need for anyone with a serious mental health issue being detained in a police cell as a place of safety.

Just last year, a woman from Barrow was found to have been held in police custody for 26 hours as officers attempted to contact the mental health crisis team 30 times.

And in 2015, the Evening Mail revealed 10 children had been kept at police stations during the previous three years while suffering a mental health crisis because there was nowhere else for them to go - a system condemned by leading mental health charity SANE.

READ MORE: Barrow woman who armed herself with knives was locked in police cell for 26 hours

READ MORE: Distressed boy detained in Barrow police van