The plans are detailed in documents obtained by the Observer and Liberty Investigates, and come a year after the website of the private company running the program was taken down following an outcry from activists. The Serenity Integrated Mentoring (SIM) programme, which sees police embedded in clinical teams to help manage patients who persistently call emergency services, was designed by former police officer Paul Jennings, a fellow at NHS England’s National Innovation Accelerator (NIA) from in 2017 to 2020. His company, the High Intensity Network (HIN), claimed that sending emergency services to respond to repeated calls from people in crisis “positively enhances[s]” High risk behavior. SIM began rolling out across the UK five years ago with response plans drawn up for specific patients and shared with emergency services. Critics say these plans have instructed A&E, ambulances, mental health services and the police not to treat these people, many of whom they claim are at high risk of self-harm. Documents, released under information laws and seen by the Observer and Liberty Investigates, show the HIN believed the scheme could save up to £80m over three years by tackling “particularly high users of healthcare and police time”. . According to HIN’s estimates, the company coordinated more than 40 teams to manage the care of 500 patients before StopSIM — a group of patients and their advocates — went public last year with concerns about the rollout, which was apparently done without Tim’s knowledge. Kendall. NHS England National Clinical Director for Mental Health. In response, Kendall last wrote in May 2021 that SIM appeared to have “no evidence base.” It asked NHS Mental Health Trusts to submit reviews of the service and the HIN appears to have taken down its website. Kendall’s report has not yet been published, but responses to his review – obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests – reveal reservations about the system in trusts. One noted that it “seemed to focus on money saved or staff hours saved” and “there was no reasonable way to defend SIM/HIN”. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Recently released documents show that the system is still in use. In response to FOI requests, three trusts and four police forces said they still had patients on SIM. One, Devon Partnership Trust, revealed it was still piloting SIM this year and has a number of patients on it. South West Yorkshire Trust confirmed it had transferred its SIM patients to a new scheme which also sees police officers accompany mental health professionals to visit patients, although a spokesman said the model differed from SIM and was based on consent and patient comments. Gloucestershire NHS Trust said it has stopped using SIM but has invested in a Complex Emotional Needs service which “brings together health, police and voluntary care services and has supported people to realize positive changes in their quality of life”. Doncaster, Rotherham and South Humber Foundation Trust said the SIM scheme would be “rebranded”. When approached for comment, however, a spokesperson said SIM had been replaced with a new service that was “significantly different from SIM”. They said the program took a trauma-informed approach, while police involvement was to help communication between groups rather than contribute to care plans. Alexa Knight, deputy director of policy and practice at Rethink Mental Illness, said the continued use of SIM and SIM-like schemes “responds to the legitimate concerns of campaigners with lived experience who raised the alarm about the serious flaws in this scheme, which risks denying people access to life-saving treatment.” “We now need assurances that mental health trusts have stopped using SIMs or will do so urgently,” said Knight, “NHS Trusts need to consider and respond to people’s concerns – this is not the same as simply restarting SIM with a different pretext”. The StopSIM campaign told the Observer and Liberty Investigates that they are working with NHS England on a policy designed to ensure key concerns about refusal of treatment are addressed. They plan to publish in the coming weeks. Kendall, NHS England’s national clinical director for mental health, said: “Any approach that seeks to punish, coerce or withhold care from patients experiencing distress is deeply unethical. “The NHS is grateful to the StopSIM coalition for highlighting these concerns which we have acted on immediately – we will be publishing our full response to the campaign in the coming weeks.”
