Debate contribution: PSNI: Pressure due to Health System Failings
Debate contribution by Ms Connie Egan on .
- MLA
- Ms Connie Egan
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 1 December 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- PSNI: Pressure due to Health System Failings
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5269455
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I support our motion, which asks the Health Minister to address the undue pressures that gap filling for the health and social care system has placed on our police service and to ensure that every person across Northern Ireland who needs mental health support receives that care from the right person at the right time.
The motion from Alliance is not only resourcing pressures facing the PSNI alone; it is about ensuring that front-line workers, including police officers, are not left to do jobs that they do not feel they are the best fit for and that those who need care receive it from a healthcare professional who is adequately trained in intervention and support to deliver it. When we put the needs of vulnerable people at the centre, it is clear that action is needed. Members of the public have expectations as to the ideal use of police time that, for the most part, align with their responding to concerns about crime. As our motion notes, however, the PSNI responds to over 100 "concern for safety" calls per day on average, with only 3% of those incidents being linked to crime. Why has that happened? It is because the PSNI is time and again put into the position of acting as a service of last resort, gap-filling for our health system. There needs to be a joint, multi-agency approach to supporting those in mental health crisis. The PSNI can have a role in that, and their involvement is appropriate in some instances. What that looks like is this: police responding to calls where there seems to be an immediate risk to life or of serious harm of an individual, where a crime may take place or where the thresholds set out in the Mental Health Order 1986 are met and it is clear that the police should remove a vulnerable person from a private or public space to a "place of safety" for support and assessment. It does not look like PSNI officers sitting in emergency rooms for long periods because of the lack of resource to enable them to hand the person over to relevant personnel in A&E for triage. In the period from January to April 2023, more than 4,500 hours were logged by police officers as time on duty in hospitals whilst accompanying patients with mental health concerns. We now know that cases relating to mental health concerns take up, in total, over 100,000 hours of police time each year. To be clear, that situation is not the fault of the healthcare workers on the ground in our emergency departments or communities but comes from funding for mental health from the Department being lower than the actual need. That is why the Alliance motion calls for the urgent implementation of the Right Care, Right Person model, among the delivery of the Department of Health's other mental health strategies and programmes, to put in place the clear roles and responsibilities of the PSNI, trusts and other partners to ensure that vulnerable people receive the most effective and timely help possible. It is not about removing the PSNI from intervention in mental health crises; it is about formally addressing the inappropriate use of PSNI involvement. It can be part of helping people but cannot replace the help of healthcare professionals. There have always been clear intersections between the health system and the justice system, but both systems work only when all partners recognise one another's expertise. The Right Care, Right Person model is essential. It provides a framework in which the health service and the PSNI can work together and, crucially, puts the vulnerable person's needs at the heart of it.
613 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.97).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.97 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.96 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.04 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.