Health Board’s Vice Chair Sees Street Team’s Work First Hand
The Vice Chair of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has been experiencing life on the front line of care for people suffering with a mental health crisis.
On the 9th February, Margaret Hanson joined the Wrexham Street Triage team for an overnight shift across the county. Street Triage is a collaborative venture between North Wales Police and the Health Board. The Pilot Project began in Wrexham last year to look at better ways to respond to people experiencing a crisis in their mental health.
The emergency services are often the first people called when individuals are in crisis and aim to help and support the person. More often than not this involves taking individuals to hospital to be assessed by Mental Health Services. The Street Triage team is a dedicated team working in Wrexham who can provide real time advice and guidance to officers and if needed the team can be deployed to undertake an assessment of the individual on scene.
Margaret said “I’m the chair of the Health Board’s mental health committee and I have a particular interest in mental health services. I think it is really important to see services in action for myself so I can understand how they operate and the sort of challenges they face.
“The Wrexham Street Triage is an excellent example of two organisations working together to support each other and to improve the outcomes for people in a crisis. This innovative approach means that people are getting the clinical expertise and services they need as quickly as possible. That’s not only better for the individual, it means less police time is spent making sure that the person is being kept safe and fewer people being detained in police cells waiting for an assessment.
“I hope that the experience gained from this scheme will help us develop more responsive services in other parts of North Wales.”
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