Taser use in mental healthcare should be banned, according to an editorial on The Guardian website.
For more than 10 years, Tasers have been used against patients in locked psychiatric settings, with such practices going unmonitored or investigated by the Care Quality Commission or the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the public body responsible for handling complaints against the police.
The use of police weaponry against detained patients is part of a much bigger problem, the article said.
Part of the problem was blamed on an overburdened system. There were 617 emergency 999 calls by one London health trust in the past 12 months.
A home affairs select committee inquiry into policing and mental health highlights concerns about the over reliance on police resources to plug the care gap in psychiatric services.
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