STRETCHED police forces across the country are having to "pick up the pieces" of a "broken" mental health system, an emergency services watchdog has concluded.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Service released a report, yesterday, which expressed grave concerns about whether police should be involved in responding to mental health problems to the degree they are.

Nationwide, more than half of all mental health patients who need help in a place of safety are taken there by police car rather than ambulance, according to the report.

The watchdog also found that in dealing with people with mental health problems, officers - who often don't have the skills needed - are doing "complex and high risk work" and finding themselves "responsible for the safety and welfare of people that other professionals would be better placed to deal with."

Responding to the report, Dorset Police Assistant Chief Constable Jim Nyre said: "We recognise that our partners are working very hard to try to resolve the problem and this is something that we’ve raised with them.

"Our officers do a fantastic job dealing with people in crisis but a significant proportion of our time is now spent dealing with people experiencing serious mental health issues.

"Many of them feel their only recourse is to call us as other services are also so stretched.

"We also focus on continued training for our officers, staff and call handlers resulting in them being able to identify people who may have mental health issues and ensure we are offering appropriate support.

"We absolutely recognise that all public services are under pressure but people with mental health problems need better support from qualified experts. Our frontline officers and staff are not medically trained clinicians."

While the report, 'Policing and mental health: picking up the pieces', does not apportion blame to either the police nor mental health practitioners, it does make recommendations on what police could do better.

These include agreeing a national definition of mental ill-health across all forces; developing better understanding of mental health data; reviewing existing partnership mental health triage services; and reviewing mental health training programmes.

In Dorset, trained mental health professionals - under the Street Triage Scheme - are available to advise responding officers.

There are also embedded mental health staff within custody centres.

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill said: "Mental health problems will affect one in four of us during our lifetime and it is absolutely right that frontline officers who are the first on the scene when responding to people in crisis have an understanding of these issues.

"I am a passionate advocate for driving forward improvements in this area, and am proud that Dorset Police has a close working relationship with mental health professionals, as well as local authority partners and third sector organisations involved in mental health.

Writing the report's foreword, HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham, said: "When it comes to mental ill-health, the police should be the last resort, not the first."