The Police Liaison Community Psychiatric Nurse Project
| Published date | 01 June 1996 |
| Date | 01 June 1996 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322199600017 |
| Pages | 21-24 |
| Author | David Etherington |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
The Mental Health Review 1:2 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 1996 21
David Etherington, Community
Psychiatric Nurse
WEST ENDCOMMUNITY TEAM
The police liaison community psychiatric
nurse (CPN) project is a one-year pilot
scheme, funded by the Home Office, to
place a CPN in three of the largest police stations
in central London: Charing Cross, West End Central
and Marylebone.
In 1989, a diversion service was set up at
Horseferry Road magistrates court, where a team of
two psychiatrists, an approved social worker (ASW)
and a CPN sat on a panel to assess offenders at court.
They were able to successfully divert offenders who
had committed minor offences into appropriate
mental health services. As this service developed,
a noticeable trend in the category of offender began
to change. Instead of predominately assessing minor
offenders, the offences became of a more serious
nature and the minor offenders did not appear to be
reaching the court system. One of the psychiatrists
began negotiations to place a CPN at police stations
to pick up minor offenders and divert from the point
of arrest. The high media-profile given to reports,
such as the Clunis report, supported such a post.
In 1993, the Revolving Doors Agency1undertook
a reflective study of custody cases, relating to a
six-month period at a central-London police station.
Their study suggested that 1·9% of the population
passing through the station presented with overt
symptoms of mental illness. In the same year,
Robertson et al.2carried out an observational study
at seven London police stations. They concluded
that 2·7% of the cases had some form of mental
illness and 1·4% demonstrated symptoms of a
serious nature. The average arrest-rates in the three
project stations were 10,000 per station, per year.
This gives some idea of the potential workload.
Aims of the project
The project had three aims:
1. To identify and assess those mentally-disordered
offenders who would not come to the attention
of mental health professionals under the existing
system.
2. To direct such cases into health-care systems,
rather than allowing them simply to be returned
to the street.
3. To provide a quantitative indication of the size of
the problem, with a view to making recommenda-
tions about development of future services.
The three stations are based in the catchment area
covering W1 and WC2 and are the responsibility of
the West End community mental health team based
in Soho. This combined health and social services
team was involved with the police station prior to
the CPN appointment. They provide ASW and
appropriate adult (AA) services to the police stations.
The population-base is 33,000, although being in
the heart of London, the transient population is
unmeasurable. Significantly, there is a large home-
less mentally-ill population. The patch has large
numbers of direct-access hostels and cold weather
shelters as well as statutory and non-statutory services
for homeless people.
Setting up the project
T
o enable a CPN to enter the police stations, a
steering-group committee was set up with CMHT
The Police Liaison Community
Psychiatric Nurse Project
CASE STUDY
To continue reading
Request your trial