A senior police officer has called for Scotland to "spend to save" to get people with mental health problems out of the country's justice system.

Niven Rennie, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, has long argued that too many distressed people are being dealt with by the police or courts rather than doctors.

Now he has called for funding to be poured in to joint schemes to ensure police and psychiatric services work more closely together than every before, such as community triage projects currently being rolled out.

Mr Rennie said: “Too many people with mental health problems are put into the criminal justice system, sometimes for their own protection.

"The time has come to spend to save. Community triage, which has proved successful in Glasgow and in England and Wales, must be supported."

As The Herald revealed earlier this week a Glasgow pilot of community triage - where psychiatric nurses work with police - has proved highly successful.

Police officers in the past had been losing hours of time dealing with distressed people, including accompanying them to accident and emergency units. More often than not, the people concerned only needed some counselling and did not require full A&E support.

Under the triage trial, nurses, usually over the phone, dealt with the issues, freeing up both police and clogged A&E doctors and providing a better service than the old system.

The service, in Glasgow, Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde an Renfrewshire, is to continue, but only on its current out-of-hours basis. The Lothians is to provide such as service at weekends. Other areas are also keen but still to identify how and when they will adopt the practice.

Rosie Wright, the chief inspector who championed the pilot, believes some 1800 hours of police time were saved in dealing with 234 incidents over six months.

Chief Inspector Wright stressed that police officers were not psychiatric professionals dealing with distressed people. Yet two officers may be expected to spend between four-and-eight hours with a distraught person waiting for A&E. "We don't know if something we might say might makes things worse. But we are not going to sit quietly either. We pride ourselves on our communications skills."

Having psychiatric nurses on the end of the phone - and in person if needed - made an incredible difference, she said. "There has been a huge improvement," she said. "The people who deal with are all referred on somewhere else, often to services where they are already known, such as addictions."

The NHS is keen on such schemes. Speaking after a major conference of professionals on the issue at the police college in Tulliallan,

Linda Mackay, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said:

“By working together, we have been able to ensure vulnerable individuals in mental health crisis can access an overnight mental health service and receive the support they need quickly and effectively to manage their situation at home.

"The outcome and experience for the patient is more favourable and ongoing support can be arranged with day services should this be required.

Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health, said: “This collaboration is an excellent example of different bodies working together to help people who are experiencing distress. "We will all do better in engaging with distress if we are compassionate and have a common understanding of the best ways to help people.

"If we do that, the evidence tells us that people in distress are more likely to engage with or stay connected to services or support that may help them over time."