LOCAL MP Mark Williams has welcomed the drop in the number of people who suffer from mental health problems being held in custody suites in the Dyfed-Powys Police area, but expressed concern about the decreasing level of support available to those who suffer from mental ill health.

The figures, which were obtained under a Freedom of Information request, showed that the number of those held in Dyfed-Powys custody suites due to mental ill-health in the police area dropped from 194 in 2011 to 58 in 2015.

In Ceredigion there has been a drop from 37 in 2011 to 15 in 2015.

Mr Williams said: “I welcome the drop in the number of people being held in ‘custody suites’ in the Dyfed-Powys Police area. However, any number of people being held in police cells due to a lack of mental health services is a serious worry. This seems to still be a particular problem in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion.

“While there have been a noticeable decline in the use of police cells to hold those suffering from mental ill health, the decline has been steeper in some other parts of the Dyfed-Powys Police area than Ceredigion – access to mental health services likely playing a large part in this.

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