For many years now, we’ve heard the repeated mantra of early intervention – both in terms of treatment of mental health problems and in terms of diversion from the criminal justice system for those who come into contact with the police or the courts. We’ve heard of and seen services explicitly branded with an Early […]

I sometimes think we’re getting somewhere with this stuff and then quite unexpectedly, I come across apparently minor and incidental things which make me suspect all the progress we think we’re seeing is an illusion – somehow apparent because of cosmetic changes that seem both intuitive and convincing. If we build a load of place […]

Policing and mental health services have many things in common (as well as some potentially insurmountable differences) but I want to consider one issue that is arguably the most controversial aspect: they are each systems of social control which involve the coercion of other people, by the threat of and the use of physical force. […]