TY - JOUR
T1 - Demographic and clinical characteristics of 1092 consecutive police custody mental health referrals
AU - Forrester, Andrew
AU - Samele, Chiara
AU - Slade, Karen
AU - Craig, Tom
AU - Valmaggia, Lucia
PY - 2017/5
Y1 - 2017/5
N2 - The 43 police forces in England and Wales have made over 13 million arrests in the last decade. Yet, despite this high volume criminal justice system activity, and evidence of substantial health morbidity across the criminal justice pathway, mental health services in police custody have only been patchily developed, and the literature in this area is limited. Referrals (n = 1092) to a pilot mental health service operating across two police stations in a London borough were examined over an 18-month period in 2012/2013. The referred group had high levels of mental health and substance misuse problems (including acute mental illness, intoxication and withdrawal), self-harm, suicide risk and vulnerability (including intellectual disability), with some important gender differences. Although this work has limitations, the findings are broadly consistent with the small existing literature and they confirm the need for services that are sufficiently resourced to meet the presenting needs.
AB - The 43 police forces in England and Wales have made over 13 million arrests in the last decade. Yet, despite this high volume criminal justice system activity, and evidence of substantial health morbidity across the criminal justice pathway, mental health services in police custody have only been patchily developed, and the literature in this area is limited. Referrals (n = 1092) to a pilot mental health service operating across two police stations in a London borough were examined over an 18-month period in 2012/2013. The referred group had high levels of mental health and substance misuse problems (including acute mental illness, intoxication and withdrawal), self-harm, suicide risk and vulnerability (including intellectual disability), with some important gender differences. Although this work has limitations, the findings are broadly consistent with the small existing literature and they confirm the need for services that are sufficiently resourced to meet the presenting needs.
KW - criminal behaviour
KW - mental health services
KW - mental illness
KW - Mentally disordered offenders
KW - police interview
KW - services
KW - substance misuse
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85007036297&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14789949.2016.1269357
DO - 10.1080/14789949.2016.1269357
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85007036297
SN - 1478-9949
VL - 28
SP - 295
EP - 312
JO - Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology
JF - Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology
IS - 3
ER -
