One of the last things I did at the College of Policing in March 2019, was complete the final draft of the National Strategy on Policing and Mental Health which I’d worked on periodically for a couple of years – yes, literally: years. I’d suggested the need for such a thing to the first NPCC lead on mental health I’d worked for – Commander Christine Jones QPM from the Metropolitan Police and it was all brought towards finalisation under her successor, Chief Constable Mark Collins QPM of Dyfed Powys Police who gave the final sign-off on the publication.
The strategy was published in early 2020 and circulated to police forces who had been consulted throughout and contributed towards its development. I understand the international healthcare pandemic meant the process of putting it on the public internet was delayed but we’re finally there! Now it’s published, it is intended as a living document which should evolve as the police service continues to refine its understanding of mental health related demands and as the role the service should play becomes ever more understood.
The background to suggesting a strategy was my own view that officers and forces often seemed to be struggling with how to understand and define their role – what, precisely, was the job of the police; which roles and responsibilities did not sit with the police at all; and how should forces manage the overlaps (or the grey areas) which inevitably exist between those things? As regular readers of this blog know, I don’t take the view the humans can or should be easily boxed off as ‘mental health’ or ‘criminal justice’ issues and on occasion, both systems need to be involved in responses to complexity. At the same time, there are some things which will be a police job all day long and other stuff they should NEVER go near.
But how best should we describe that, to take account of all that is known about this area of policing? –
WHAT PROBLEM ARE YOU TRYING TO SOLVE?
Many also know I can be quite pedantic about asking this question when we are discussing policing and mental health in general, or specific initiatives or responses to incidents, in particular? Often, after long, long discussions about a raft of issues, problems and suggested solutions I’ve been known to ask “What problem are you actually trying to solve?” and in my own experience, people often have fairly limited answers to that question, if they any answers at all. This is not a criticism, the question isn’t an obvious one and I’ve floundered around with it myself for years so I hope it’s OK to say those answers often seem to lack a little depth, in my own personal view. I’m saying this because I know my own answers to this kind of almost philosophical reflection were absolutely replete with waffle – you’ll see plenty of that laid bare on this blog! When I say ‘lacking depth’, I mainly mean answers which don’t seem to take account of what we definitely do know and what we definitely know we don’t know.
The strategy, moulded and amplified by all 43 police forces in England and Wales and also by consultation with partners and the public on social media, was an attempt to answer this question in a meaningful way – to ensure the police service answered this. It’s not perfect but it’s now there to be read and debated. It’s the police service answering because the service faces competing and various demands around mental health from the various agencies they work alongside as well as from the public. As the strategy makes clear: what the NHS, for example, want from their police service is not always the same thing as what the public say they want – we have hundreds of different NHS organisations who don’t all want the same thing; and “the public” is not one homogeneous and cohesive group of like minded individuals who see our role in a uniform way.
So whatever the reasons for those differing (sometimes contrasting or contradictory) views, the police service needs to decide for itself, amidst all of that, how it approaches the trade offs that inevitably must result, as it does on all other aspects of policing.
And therefore the strategy, in essence, says this this –
- The police service is both over-exposed to and under-involved in demand connected to our mental health.
- The police service has an important role to play because some of that demand often is and always will be ‘core police business’.
- The police service needs to listen much more to those of whose lives are seriously affected by our mental health.
- Addressing problems will, by definition, require a partnership approach – not just with NHS and public authorities, but perhaps more importantly, with the public.
- Society needs to be cautious not to ‘over-police’ – because that can be literally disastrous.
- We all still have a lot to learn about the impact of policing and the learning which exists from safeguarding reviews, coroner’s inquests and other case law.
- And my personal bugbear: legal education for all is critical.
JUST ONE VIEW OF THE PROBLEM
My own way to summarise what I see as the main problem, not outlined in exactly this way in the strategy, is this –
The fundamental problem we all face is over-reliance upon the criminal justice and emergency systems as de facto mental health and crisis care responder as a proxy for timely, relevant support to those of us whose lives are seriously affected by our mental health. The symptomatic problem flowing from that is under-preparedness of the police service and its officers to cope with it and to work towards preventing it by understanding demand and lessons from history.
This is, in my own view, the only way to fully understand the lessons which have been hard-learned at inquiries, inquests and from various kinds of investigation. I’m genuinely happy to be convinced I am wrong about that – I’d actually like to be and I’ve always said it. But I want evidenced facts from the real world, including from the voices of those of us affected, to help me understand why I’m wrong. Opinions absent awareness of things has never sufficed for me because we know what we know and need to accept that and factor it in to our approach.
I been privileged enough to have had the opportunity to author the current national policing guidelines and the national strategy – helped and bashed in to final shape by plenty of others to whom I’m grateful. In addition, I’ve been able to develop training programmes to underpin them all and made my views clear about the nature of the challenge and my difficulty with the solutions we’ve reached for over the last decade. Whether the imperatives arising from these are truly realised is a matter for others because I’ve now what I reasonably can.
Winner of the President’s Medal,
the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All views expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation.
(c) Michael Brown, 2019
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 