POLICE and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan has called for more to be done to protect mental health support in North Yorkshire.

Speaking on World Mental Health Day, Mrs Mulligan highlighted how mental health projects in the region had been supported in recent years - with mental health nurses in the Force Control Room, street triages in Scarborough, York and Selby, a programme to help guide people towards support services, and a research and training programme with the University of York.

However, Mrs Mulligan two of the region's four 'places of safety' - where mental health sufferers are taken by police instead of cells - were at risk of closure.

Mrs Mulligan wrote to Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams, who is Parliamentary undersecretary of state for mental health and inequalities, and urged the Government to "not move backwards on this important issue".

She said: "It is positive that people are more willing to talk about mental health and I am confident the investment in care and support is making a difference, but no one should be under any illusion that challenges remain.

"Providing support to those individuals who need it, and the public bodies that care for them, will always be something that no one organisation can achieve alone. We need to build partnerships that work, and ensure every public leader recognises the impact that their decisions have on the wider efforts to ensure we don’t go backwards and continue to improve support for very vulnerable people here in North Yorkshire and the City of York."