Too many children are not being cared for adequately after being found mentally disturbed in a public place, the Howard League for Penal Reform reports. Instead of being taken to “a place of safety” as required by law, except in exceptional circumstances, the national charity suggests around one in ten (more than half girls, and many in their young teens) are taken into police cells or adult hospital wards. The number could be much higher, it says, because hospital trusts are also failing to keep adequate records about this very vulnerable group.
The figures come from questions put by the charity to all 52 mental health trusts in England.
That such a “confusing landscape” of emergency provision exists is hugely disappointing but perhaps unsurprising if we look at the wider issue of children in the mental health system.
[For more of this story, written by Ian Cummins, go to https://theconversation.com/cr...police-custody-31196]
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