Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T02:20:01.911Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Police referrals — a crisis intervention approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Janice Morgan  and
John Cordingly
Janice Morgan
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Unit, Barnet General Hospital
John Cordingly
Affiliation:
Napsbury Hospital, London Colney, Nr St Albans, Herts AL2 1AA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Recently, concern has been expressed by mental health professionals, MIND, and the police regarding the management of Section 136 referrals, which at present varies according to the local psychiatric services available. In the majority of London Metropolitan Boroughs a person deemed to be in need of care and control is taken first to a police station where the necessary documentation is completed and then transported, often a considerable distance, to a mental hospital for the purpose of assessment. This can result in lengthy delays in a police cell for the patient, time-consuming negotiations with hospitals for the police, and problems completing the assessment procedure due to lack of availability of social workers. The importance of considering alternatives, particularly with the move towards community care, has been stressed.

Type
Articles
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 15 , Issue 8 , August 1991 , pp. 465 - 468
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1991

References

Dunn, J. & Fahy, T. (1987) Section 136 and the police. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 11, 224–225.Google Scholar
Edeh, J. (1987) Patients' rights and the Mental Health Act. Lancet, i, 45.Google Scholar
Kelleher, M. J. & Copeland, J. R. M. (1972) Compulsory psychiatric admissions by the police: a study in the use of Section 136. Medicine, Science and the Law, 12, 220–224.Google Scholar
Rassaby, E. & Rogers, A. (1987) Psychiatric referrals from the police. Variations in disposal at different places of safety. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 11, 78–81.Google Scholar
Rogers, A. & Faulkner, A. (1987) A Place of Safety. London: MIND Publications.Google Scholar
Sims, A. C. P. & Symonds, R. L. (1975) Psychiatric referrals from the police. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 171–178.Google Scholar
Weller, M. P. I., Weller, B. G. A., Baumann, S. & Coker, E. (1988) The local use of Section 136. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 12, 235–236.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.