Shocking pictures show suicidal mental health patient forced to sleep in the back of a police car due to a lack of beds
The newlywed was turned away from one hospital that only had ONE bed
THIS is the shocking moment a young mental health patient was forced to sleep in the back of a police car like a "criminal" due to lack of beds.
Katie Simpkins, 23, has emotionally unstable personality disorder and suffered a bad episode of suicidal thoughts over the bank holiday weekend.
Despite being sectioned by police, she was turned away from the mental health hospital which had just one bed for people picked up from a public place.
Terrified Katie was offered a cell until the bed became free but her and husband Tristan, 25, refused.
Instead they let her sleep on the back seats of their car in the hospital car park for four hours until she was able to be moved inside.
Brave Katie has now decided to release the shocking photograph to raise awareness about the lack of mental health provisions.
She had already spent day in police cells due to a lack beds for people served with a order under section 136 of the Mental Health Act for their own safety.
The section relates to police taking a patient to a place of safety from a public place.
At the end of the day Katie had committed no crime yet was treated like she had.
Tristan Simpkins
When I saw her lying in the back of the police car I felt frustrated - but I've become used to it.
Tristan from Corsham, Wiltshire, said: "What does it take before politicians, NHS bosses and police bosses will realise that mental health needs the same amount of funding as physical health?
"If someone in crisis does have to go to custody do not treat them like a criminal.
"At the end of the day Katie had committed no crime yet was treated like she had.
"There should be a policy in place where if people do go in to custody they should be treated in a safe and least restrictive way.
"When I saw her lying in the back of the police car I felt frustrated - but I've become used to it.
"I feel hopeless.
"If she had a headache, I would give her a paracetamol, and it would go.
"But because it is mental health that takes lots of therapy, and building up self confidence to repair.
"It's a long process and this time it was only started when the police said they would stay with her."
Katie has battled with personality disorder since 2013 due to emotional abuse she suffered earlier in her life.
Although she has "good days", the disorder can leave her feeling low and overwhelmed by her emotions and sometimes suicidal.
On Thursday, Katie, who has been married for just five weeks, had suicidal thoughts. She self-harmed the next day.
Tristan, an agency support worker, took her to a minor injury unit in Trowbridge at 3am on Saturday, where she had stitches but she "hit crisis".
I think there should be a second policy for people who have been sectioned in custody.
Tristan Simpkins
It seems to be one rule for everyone and you get treated like a criminal.
He said: "The hospital phoned the community mental health team and they said 'she's in a place of safety, what do you expect us to do'."
Staff had no choice but to phone the police who initially tried to help Tristan take her home for much-needed rest, but on the way to the car she started to walk off.
Two police officers issued a section 136 and they, along with a nurse, rang around all the mental health units in the area but none were free.
They were then forced to take her to a custody suite in Melksham police station at 5am.
Tristan said: "Katie got very claustrophobic in the cells and described the clothes she had to wear as a ligation risk as canvassy.
"She didn't want to wear the shorts because she is very self-conscious of the scars on her leg but she was told she had to.
"I think there should be a second policy for people who have been sectioned in custody.
"It seems to be one rule for everyone and you get treated like a criminal."
On Saturday, Katie was given another mental health assessment but cops were forced to issue another section 136 and told the exhausted newlyweds a bed was available at Green Lane Hospital in Devizes, Wilts.
But when they got there at 5pm they were told it wouldn't be ready for another three-and-a-half hours.
Cops kindly offered to wait with the couple instead of taking Katie back to custody and offered her the back seat of their car when she became drowzy because of the medication she had taken.
She was finally admitted at 9pm, and has now been transferred to the acute ward where she is receiving the help she needs.
Wiltshire currently only has two mental health place of safety beds available - one at Green Lane and the other at Fountain Way hospital in Salisbury 25 miles away.
The chief constable of Wiltshire Police Mike Veale said he hoped the shocking photo of Katie would allow them to "draw a line in the sand" on what is not acceptable.
He added: "There has been a lot of media interest in a recent incident involving a young woman who was taken into custody by Wiltshire Police because she was suffering from mental health problems.
"This one incident has shone a light on a problem police forces up and down the country are dealing with day in, day out.
"And I am hoping that this interest will allow us to draw a line in the sand and take a stand on what is and is not acceptable for people struggling with mental health issues."
Let me make this clear, custody is there for police officers to detain criminals. Patients should not be treated as prisoners.
Chief Constable Mike Veale
A police cell is not the appropriate place for someone struggling with these complex problems to be held.
He continued: "However, people who are unwell need to be kept safe and we will always be there to do our best in these complicated circumstances, to protect them in a caring and professional way.
"Just this week there has been numerous incidents involving people with acute mental health problems, where the responsibility for dealing with them has been unfairly placed on the shoulders of the police.
"It includes this incident with the young woman in Melksham, another where a man had to be held in a cell for more than 48 hours because there was no mental health care facility available for him, and another just last night when officers spent over an hour persuading a 17-year-old girl who was having a schizophrenic episode to come down from the roof of a car park, only to be told that there were no beds available for her anywhere in the county.
"I believe it is time to put the public first, stop the silo working, and discuss urgently what we as partner agencies and as leaders of these agencies are going to do to stop these long-term and complex problems.
"Finally, as with all public services, all our frontline colleagues should be acknowledged for the fantastic service they provide in what is an ever-increasingly difficult landscape where resources and budgets are diminishing whilst the demand on their services increases."
In this instance we were unable to provide a bed straight away and there clearly could have been better communication.
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
We apologise and will be mindful of this in the future.
A spokesman for Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust apologised.
He said: "We work closely with the police to ensure they know the availability of places of safety. In this instance we were unable to provide a bed straight away and there clearly could have been better communication.
"We apologise and will be mindful of this in the future.
"Once the matter came to our attention, we made contact with Mr Simpkins to give him and his wife our full support."
In June, it emerged that the NHS has half the number of hospital beds than impoverished Romania.
There are now an average of just three beds per 1,000 people in the UK, compared with more than six in Romania and eight in Germany.
And last year, nearly 5,500 mental health patients in England had to travel out of their area because of a lack of hospital beds.
Some even had to travel nearly 300 miles, the shocking figures revealed.
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