Response to People with Mental Ill Health and Learning Disabilities

Police officers and police staff will come into both direct and indirect contact with people with mental ill-health and/or learning disabilities on a daily basis. Many people in this group will have been the victim of crime or experienced discrimination or may just have difficulties in dealing with ordinary events which bring them into our circle of concern because of their condition, illness or disability.

Others will come to our notice because they are experiencing specific or acute symptoms which give rise to concern that they may harm themselves or others and will need immediate expert medical assessment to keep them and others safe. A further group of people may have committed an offence or be suspected of doing so and are suffering from mental ill-health or have a learning disability.

In whatever context officers and staff encounter these individuals and their families Gwent Police recognise that their illness or disability needs to be acknowledged and taken full account of in the way we treat them and seek to give them the most appropriate response and support, calling on the expert advice and assistance from other relevant professionals where necessary.

Gwent Police are represented on several multi-agency steering groups and partnership boards in relation to people with mental illness or a learning disability who have contact with the criminal justice system but there is much to do within our own organisation to reach a position where all officers and members of staff have enough knowledge and awareness of this group of people to be able to identify an individual who may be suffering ill-health or living with a disability and respond accordingly. Some conditions such as autism can be hard to recognise but failure to do so can result in significant discrimination for the person involved and misdirected actions or decisions on the part of police officers and staff.

Gwent Police has a mental health implementation board which is working to an Action Plan issued by the National Policing Improvement Agency. One action is to consolidate all the relevant legislation and guidance and make it easily available and user-friendly for all members of staff. Another important action is to conduct a training needs analysis around mental health and learning disabilities.

Key Facts:

• Between October 2010 and October 2011, 230 people were detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act in Gwent. 59% of these individuals were taken to a place of safety at a hospital for an assessment by a doctor and a social worker but 41% had to be detained in a police cell because they were either too violent or intoxicated to be safely assessed at a hospital.
• In 2009, Gwent Police brought together a team of specially trained and selected detectives to investigate the alleged abuse of vulnerable adults. Working closely with partners in health and social services, they assess and investigate a variety of offences and breaches of legislation where people with mental illnesses, learning disabilities and dementia have been subjected to neglect, sexual abuse, assault and financial crime. There have been several enquiries into deaths in residential settings with many important precedents set for these investigations by 'Operation Jasmine'.