Section 136 of the Mental Health Act is often debated in terms of whether or not the authority can be used in particular kinds of place – debate consumed by whether somewhere is a “public place” and what this term actually means.  Does it include and Accident & Emergency department, or a general medical ward […]

Even when I started writing this blog just under two years ago, policing and mental health received nothing like the coverage it now gets and there are various formal and informal ways of seeing this.  We’ve seen prime time television coverage devoted to it in last week’s Panorama, we’ve seen newly elected Police and Crime […]

The excellent Dr Jenny HOLMES remarked in her presentation to the Police Federation National Custody Forum conference this week, that she thinks the reduction in 136 needs to be health led.  I don’t doubt for one moment that there are things the NHS could do differently which would impact upon numbers in section 136. Very […]