In 2005 I was given the job of writing a ‘force policy’ on mental health.  The first time we’d ever had an internal policy document on mental health issues.  Whist researching it, amongst other things, I opened up various communications channels to get feedback about what officers wanted to find in it: which operational quandaries […]

I am hearing a lot of discussion at the moment about stress in the police.  With regard to policing, we know that various things are contributing to potential pressures upon officers:  a pay freeze along with the rest of the public sector, a review into pay and conditions, recently increased pension contributions, the extra workload […]

It is really important that we distinguish between illness and insanity, because whilst they may overlap, they can often be uncorrelated and they are distinct concepts from two different worlds – I deliberately don’t restrict this observation to mental illness, either. Illness and / or mental illness are medical or psycho-social concepts; insanity is a legal […]