Reflecting on Toronto

Late last year, I was fortunate to be invited to Toronto, for the 4th Law Enforcement and Public Health conference to help co-convene a two-day event on ‘law enforcement and mental health’ with Professor Stuart Thomas from RMIT, Melbourne. We got to spend two days with a range of police officers, mental health professionals but […]

Exacerbating Tensions

I’ve had to ask myself recently whether I’m guilty of potentially exacerbating tensions or conflict between the police and mental health services, after a number of suggestions on social media and elsewhere that this is the effect of what I am doing. It didn’t take long to work out that this is precisely what I […]

I’m a Mental Health Professional

I’m a mental health professional – but I didn’t realise this when I first joined the police. When I retire, the operational incidents that will live with me beyond my career are almost exclusively those which have involved very vulnerable people. The poor guy who set himself on fire; the man who killed his mum […]