Mental Health and Routine Police Work
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mental Health and Routine Policing: A Qualitative Study of Partner Agency, Service User, and Carer Perspectives of Contact with Police
IRAS ID
338700
Contact name
Martin Webber
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of York
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 0 days
Research summary
A significant proportion of routine police work involves people who are perceived to be experiencing mental health problems as victims, perpetrators and/or witnesses. Most research to date has focused on police involvement in mental health crises especially in situations where people are compulsorily detained using mental health law. However, there are a number of areas where the evidence is lacking including: a better understanding of how “mental health” is defined, conceptualised and coded by police officers within the lens of “vulnerability”; and the impact of the environment (such as limited community resources, socio-economic factors, crime levels, poor housing stock etc.) on police engagement with people with mental health problems.
As part of a wider study on policing and mental health, we want to talk to NHS staff who work alongside the police in relation to mental health situations in order to obtain their views on how police work with mental health including what works well and what could be better. This will include services such as mental health crisis response, psychiatric liaison in emergency departments, and Section 136 suites, ambulance staff, and staff in emergency departments. We also want to interview people who receive care for their mental health problems (and carers) from NHS mental health treatment settings who have had recent contact (in the past 12 months) with the police to understand things from their perspectives.
This project aims to address the gap in knowledge regarding ‘everyday policing’ and mental health. It aims to illustrate the techniques, models and intervention methods used by the police and partner agencies when they are dealing with mental health issues in the course of their routine work. The ultimate goal is to identify what ‘good practice’ may look like and how this could be replicated.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
24/WS/0110
Date of REC Opinion
1 Aug 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion