Overview on the Commissioning And Provision of Services For People With Mental Health Problems Who Come Into Contact With The Criminal Justice System
| Date | 01 June 1996 |
| Published date | 01 June 1996 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322199600013 |
| Pages | 8-15 |
| Author | Gregor Henderson,Vida Field |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
8 The Mental Health Review 1:2 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 1996
Overview on the Commissioning
And Provision of Services For People
With Mental Health Problems
Who Come Into Contact With
The Criminal Justice System
Gregor Henderson, Senior Consultant
CMHSD
Vida Field, Reed Implementation Officer
LAMBETH, SOUTHWARK &LEWISHAM HEALTHCOMMISSION
To date, health and social care services have
had great difficulties in adequately meeting
the needs of people with mental-health
problems who come into contact with the criminal
justice system. Historically, these people have been
a low priority and are often still not able to access
local services. They are a particularly vulnerable group
and, if their health and social care needs are not met,
there is a risk that people slip into a vicious cycle of
imprisonment, re-offending, and deteriorating mental
health. Effective care involves a wide range of
agencies who straddle a number of government
departments, including health and local authorities,
NHS Trusts, housing departments, GPs, the police,
legal profession, courts, prisons, probation depart-
ments, voluntary and private organisations. This
makes the planning of both national policy and
the care of individuals extremely difficult.
National policy has consistently, over the last
decade, called for people’s needs to be met by
health/social care services, not the criminal justice
system. Yet the public perception, given particular
prominence by some recent high-profile cases, is
that this policy is failing and tragedies are occurring
which ought to have been avoided. Media attention
has focused on those serious offenders who demon-
strate a failure of the NHS and other services to
provide adequate care and treatment and where
performance is measured by the prevention of
offending behaviour. This attention has presented
a real challenge in providing services to this group.
People require a response, not only to their mental
illness, but also to their offending behaviour,
particularly in relation to the safety of the public.
Achieving the balance between an individual’s
needs, ensuring their safety and preventing harm
to themselves and the public are fundamental to
a good service.
Recent policy overview and
relevant guidance*
The Reed review1set the agenda for services for
many years to come. One of its main achievements
has been the widespread acceptance of its guiding
* The latter paragraphs in this sections are taken from: Farrar, M. (1995) Government Policy On Mentally-Disordered Offenders And Its Implementation
(1983–1995). Paper submitted to the Journal of Mental Health.
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