Police in England and Wales detained 202 vulnerable under-18s under the Mental Health Act, some for more than two days, despite widespread condemnation of the practice. Hampshire police held a 17-year-old girl for 63 hours and 40 minutes, while Nottinghamshire police held a 16-year-old girl for 52 hours.
Responding to the figures, Marjorie Wallace, the chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said: “It is quite unacceptable that anyone suffering from a mental health condition, especially a young person, should treated as a criminal.
More pupils have mental health issues, say school staff
More children have mental health issues than two years ago, a survey of school teachers suggests.
More than half of 850 staff surveyed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) agreed more pupils had developed problems.
On Monday, the ATL’s annual conference will debate a call for more support for vulnerable pupils in schools.
General secretary Dr Mary Bousted blamed “poverty, poor housing, unemployment and financial insecurity”.
School staff have had to “plug the gaps in social care as best they can”, said Dr Bousted.
Child MENTAL HEALTH services England must be prioritised more to tackle the complex and severe problems they face, a leaked draft taskforce report says.
The review, headed by senior NHS England and Department of Health officials, said addressing the issue must become a “national ambition”.
It highlights rising waiting times and the lack of age-appropriate hospital services.
But it noted attempts had STARTED being made to improve care.
The taskforce was set up by ministers. In particular, its draft report praised the push by the government on MENTAL HEALTH since 2011, when ministers said they wanted “parity of esteem with physical health services”.