Just a few short thoughts on what I’m going to try and cover on this blog as and when time permits and to invite any thoughts:
This is mainly a ‘to do’ list for me, however please leave a comment if you’d like me to bash together thoughts on any other aspect of policing which involves mental health issues … there are loads more, but these will be the priority:
- Liaison and diversion in custody for criminal suspects who are mentally ill.
- The prosecution of psychiatric (in)patients
- The police and ‘Crisis Intervention Training’
- s136 Mental Health Act – parts 2 and 3
- MHA assessments on private premises s135 Mental Health Act – the challenge for AMHPs!
- AWOL patients
- Police support for the enforced medication, seclusion or transfer of patients
Finally – this doesn’t all have to be serious so I’ll thank those who have given early support to this embryonic blog by sharing the police mentalhealth song … enjoy!
Michael./
Winner of the President’s Medal, the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation. (c) Michael Brown, 2011
I try to keep this blog up to date, but inevitably over time, amendments to the law as well as court rulings and other findings from inquests and complaints processes mean it is difficult to ensure all the articles and pages remain current. Please ensure you check all legal issues in particular and take appropriate professional advice where necessary.
Government legislation website – www.legislation.gov.uk
Mental Health Cop 
Well done on the blog. It’s fascinating and I’m heartened to find you taking to the process like a proverbial duck to water!
Personally (because it’s a little favourite of mine), I’d love to find out your thoughts/experiences of using the Mental Capacity Act and how that has panned out as it seems to be a constant.. tension.. regarding the ‘decision-maker’ and how assistance can be given, if necessary.
“Wont back down” = great choice. Other inspiration for me is Labi Sifree “Something inside so strong!” (just a bit light on rock!) and quite a few more. But excellent blog again thank you…deserves to trend ! We need FACTS and this is proving FACTS + the opportunity to be heard!
Thanks for helping sort the wood from the trees!
I would have though your major problem would have been dealing with Police Officers bigotry when dealing with the mentally ill or those accused of being ill.
Well, oddly enough, it’s not; but given society’s bigotry towards the mentally ill there’s an inevitability that some police officers may have a poor attitude.
What I would say, is that since I’ve started using twitter on this subject area, the number of extremely positive messages about police attitudes towards helping people in crisis is a LARGE one; the number of negative messages is ZERO. Not as scientific survey by any means, but an indicator.
In which case I can only concluded they you do not work for Merseyside Police.