Policing psychiatric illness: An organisational paradox for Health & Law

Abstract

This conceptual article examines the organisational crisis in England's National Health Service in light of the recently launched model of policing called Right Care Right Person introduced to reduce police hours spent dealing with mental health crisis calls. It is a move that has come with concerns for health services because these newly created gaps alongside the existing ones pose challenges around funding and timescales in implementing the new model. It is a curious case of organisational paradox that diverting mentally ill persons into health services and ‘decriminalising’ those whose health conditions bring them to the attention of the justice system, has raised concerns in the health sector about access to adequate mental health services unless an arm of the justice system is involved. Given the similarities in health and legal systems in the Anglo-Western world, this English model has international implications about organisational paradoxes in health systems.