A SENIOR Cumbrian police officer has welcomed a report which recognises how overstretched the police service is by the mental health crisis in the UK.

Superintendent Mark Pannone, lead officer for Mental Health at Cumbria Police, said the issues regarding mental health faced by other constabularies across the country are also present in the county.

His comments come after a report was issued by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services recognising how the police is increasingly being used as the default service to help people with mental health problems.

Superintendent Pannone said: “I welcome the HMICFRS findings and appreciate that it has highlighted some of the challenges for police forces nationally.

“We are here to protect the public and Cumbria Police will help anyone who needs our support. Those suffering with mental health issues need professional support however and we may not be best placed to help those in a crisis.

“In Cumbria we have seen a 110 per cent increase in incidents that are mental health related in the last five years. In the last 12 months there were 5143 such incidents last year-to-date, and in the last month 435 incident were recorded.

“Mental health related incidents are often more resource intensive than others. For example, last night we were called to an individual in crisis, it took nine specially trained officers 36 hours to resolve and ensure that a suicidal person was found and provided with specialist care by healthcare professionals.

“It is likely that if there was more access to support through the night, this person would not have put his life at risk.

“The time spent looking for and protecting this person in crisis meant that officers were distracted from preventing and detecting crime across the county.

“We work very closely with the NHS, Cumbria Partnership, MIND and other key partners, this includes an increase in joined-up working and focus on preventing people getting into crisis in the first place.

“Those working in the health sector provide a high level of service to those who need it, but ultimately, as the findings identify in the HMICFRS report, there needs to be more resources.”

According to the report, The Metropolitan Police Service receive a call related to mental health every four minutes. And an officer responds to a mental health-related call every 12 minutes.