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Law profession welcomes police mental health initiative
The Law Society of New South Wales has welcomed a decision by the NSW government to place mental health professionals in police area command centres.
Naomi Neilson
The decision to expand the NSW government’s Police Ambulance and Clinical Early Response (PACER) pilot and place 36 mental health clinicians into 10 police area commands and districts has been welcomed by the NSW Law Society.
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President Richard Harvey said the program has shown early intervention support can reduce the number of people with a mental illness who end up in the justice system.
“As legal practitioners know, this can be crucial to ensuring someone with a mental illness receives the support they require, when they need it, and prevent them from ending up in the criminal justice system,” Mr Harvey said.
“Importantly, the presence of a mental health clinician also provides our first responders with the support they need to deal with these situations.”
The program was trialed successfully in the St George Police Area Command. It will now continue to provide a method of reducing the over-representation of people with mental health impairments from entering the criminal justice system.
“Early intervention, provided through programs like PACER, can not only help prevent people from spending a lifetime in the criminal justice system, but also reduce the financial costs to the community,” Mr Harvey said.
He added that there is still a need for increased diversion at all stages of the criminal justice system for people with cognitive and mental health impairments.
“Effective diversion requires offenders to engage with appropriate and adequately resourced treatment and service providers, and the Law Society will continue to advocate for improved sentences in this regard,” he said.
