A PROJECT in which mental health workers go out on the beat with police is helping take pressure off Oxfordshire’s hospitals, a health director has said.

Dr Rob Bale, clinical director of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, said it was one of the benefits of the Oxfordshire Street Triage Pilot.

Yesterday, the Oxford Mail reported that the pilot had reduced the number of people with mental health issues being sent to custody when no NHS facilities were available from 85 in January-October 2013, to 25 in the same period this year. Those sent to an NHS “place of safety” also fell from 294 to 220 in the same periods under the scheme, which sees two mental health professionals go out with police from 6pm to 2am each day.

Dr Bale said: “Coming into hospital can be the most appropriate course of action, but for other people being supported in their own home and given the right interventions at home is a better intervention.

“We have a low number of beds, so we need to maintain those effectively.”

The project was set up with £200,000 from the Department of Health. Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group is set to fund it next year.

Oxford deputy local policing area commander Ch Insp Yvette Hitch said the scheme had “revolutionised” the police approach, adding: “It has allowed for greater knowledge and understanding.”

Devon and Cornwall Assistant Chief Constable Paul Netherton last week tweeted about the “unacceptable” placing of a 16-year-old girl with mental health problems in a police cell because of lack of beds.

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