Mental Health a Policing Challenge for the United Kingdom and the Netherlands

Abstract

Mental health is becoming a serious problem. Statistically, one in four people in the United Kingdom experience a mental illness annually. Countries throughout Europe and indeed the World are also experiencing crisis relating to mentally ill patients. The United Kingdom and the Netherlands are two such countries. It has been noted by police forces within the Netherlands that many people experiencing a mental health problem will commit petty crime in which the police have to deal with. Within the Netherlands, an epidemiological study reveals the truths behind what the police have to deal with along with how they deal with the mentally ill. This is then used to compare to how the United Kingdom’s Police Forces deal with the mentally ill so that police in the Netherlands can deal with the crisis more efficiently and rapidly.