Black, white and grey: investigating the pathways and interface between police, those in mental health distress and emergency health services.

Heyman, Inga

Abstract

People who experience mental health distress (PWEMHD) often come to the attention of police through direct contact when help seeking or through concern by others in the community. Frequently officers are required to seek safe-keeping advice through mental health assessment from health services to support decision making. At times the individual may not be considered to be at risk by health staff or clinical involvement can be compromised due to intoxication, with PWEMHD returned to police officers for onward management. Officers can find this challenging and may believe the individual may still require safeguarding yet feel ill- equipped and under resourced to do so. Anecdotally, although officers understand their roles in keeping communities safe, they frequently find their policing roles compromised in caretaking people whom they believe are the responsibility of health services.

Citation

HEYMAN, I. 2016. Black, white and grey: investigating the pathways and interface between police, those in mental health distress and emergency health services. In the Scottish institute for policing research annual report 2015. Dundee: Scottish Institute for Policing Research, School of the Environment, University of Dundee [online], pages 38-39. Available from: http://www.sipr.ac.uk/Plugin/Publications/assets/files/SIPR_Annual_Report_15.pdf

• Report Type: Research Report
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2016
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 12, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 12, 2016
• Publisher: Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR)
• Keywords: Mental health distress (PWEMHD); Police; Emergency health services
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1658
• Publisher URL: http://www.sipr.ac.uk/downloads/SIPR_Annual_Report_15.pdf