Sydney

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Police should be relegated to back-up support for mental health workers or not respond at all to call-outs for severely mentally ill people in crisis, a major NSW inquiry has concluded.

But the recommendation fell short of demanding the reform be urgently implemented despite the deaths of more than 50 people during or as a result of police responding to mental health emergencies across NSW in the past five years, and strong support from mental health experts, patients, families and police.