Emergency Mental Health Care

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 23 February 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:35, 23 February 2021

Llywydd, I do absolutely agree with David Melding that people should get the help they need in the right setting. It's completely unacceptable that someone who has primarily a mental health need or condition should end up in a criminal justice context. I know that David Melding will be pleased that one of the 'Beyond the Call' recommendations that has been implemented is that we should have conveyance pilots—that people who are in acute mental distress should not be taken to where they can get help in the back of a police car. And we have three of those pilots going on at the moment with St John Ambulance Cymru—in Swansea Bay, Cwm Taf Morgannwg, and here in Cardiff and the Vale. And it's precisely in order to address the sorts of circumstances that David Melding has referenced—that those people should get the help they need in a way that is sensitive to the distress that they are experiencing, and not in places or by means that add to that distress. And that will need further investment. I'm very pleased to say that we still hope that the Tonna in-patient perinatal mental health service will open to patients in April of this year, and that will be in physical conditions that meet the standards of the twenty-first century.