A NEW scheme aimed at improving the response and care given to those suffering from mental health has been launched in Bracknell.

The new Street Triage programme, run by Thames Valley Police in partnership with the East Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, will aim to ensure people are properly looked after when police are called to a person in distress.

The mental health professionals will be there to attend incidents with police officers so they can offer face-to-face advice, make accurate risk assessments and give the right care to the patient.

This will reduce the need for people to be taken to a custody suite as a place of safety.

The service will involve one mental health professional working alongside police officers between 5pm and 2am, Thursdays to Sundays.

By avoiding the use of custody as a place of safety, as well as improving the outcome for the individual, it will reduce the amount of time police officers spend on mental health incidents.

It aims to find less restrictive and a better alternative to the use of Section 136 - a power available to police when a person is found in a public place, suffering from mental ill health and in immediate need of care or control.

They may be detained and removed to a place of safety in their own interests or that of others.

The scheme is already running in other areas of Thames Valley including Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury, Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham.

Supt Rob France, police commander for Bracknell and Wokingham, said: "I have been working closely with my LPA commander colleagues at Slough and Windsor and Maidenhead to ensure we deliver an effective and co-ordinated street triage service for the whole of East Berkshire.

"This service is a fantastic opportunity to improve the care provided to those in mental health crisis. We know from the areas where this is already being put into practice that the results is those in need of urgent mental health care will be more likely to get that care in a timely and effective manner without recourse to police powers.

"We will always act where someone's health and safety is at risk, and often in a crisis our officers are able to take the first crucial steps. However, it is our partners who are best placed to provide the ongoing support and I am pleased that they will now be able to do so much more easily."

Dr Jim O'Donnell, Clinical Chair for Slough Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "This important initiative recognises that people with mental health problems need care and support at what can be a very distressing time. The CCGs in East Berkshire have invested to further improve mental health services and the GPs across the area will be pleased to see this new service in place."