The Street Triage Project is a piece of doctoral research that has been awarded funding from The University of Sheffield, School of Law until 2019 and is being hosted by Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust.
The research is being conducted by Rivka Smith, under the supervision of Dr Layla Skinns and Dr Matthew Bacon, also from the School of Law.
Street Triage involves a combined mental health service and policing approach to mental health crisis care. A Street Triage team might consist of a police officer and a mental health practitioner, working together to help a person experiencing mental health difficulties. There is no singularly defined operational model of Mental Health Street Triage and so the generic term ‘Street Triage’ is used for the various models that have been adopted across police forces.
Schemes currently operating in England and Wales appear predominantly to have adopted at the scene or over the telephone advice and assistance in assessing an individual in distress.
The team are looking to speak to people that have accessed the Sheffield Street Triage team as a service user or carer since 2013. If you are unsure whether you were seen by the Street Triage team but would like to discuss your experiences of interaction with the police in relation to your mental health, that is also fine, and they would welcome the opportunity to meet with you.
There are two ways that service users can get involved. If you know you were seen by the Street Triage team, you can complete a questionnaire about your experiences and return this anonymously. A copy of the questionnaire can be obtained by emailing the email address at the bottom of this page. Service users are also invited to meet with the researcher for a confidential interview in which they can discuss in detail their experiences of Street Triage and interaction with the police and mental health practitioners. You can choose to do both! View information sheet for further details.
If you are interested in taking part or wish to find out more about this project, please email: rsmith3@sheffield.ac.uk
