Mental Health Cop
1,285 FOLLOWERS
Hi! I'm Michael. Welcome to my award-winning BLOG on policing, mental health and criminal justice. I've run this site for the last ten years and it's been used way more than two and a half million times around the world. Perhaps more importantly, it got me a job working full-time on the issues I've written about and a chance to influence the laws, policies and policing across..
Mental Health Cop
5d ago
A short, very functional post to announce I’ve set up ‘MentalHealthCop’ social media feeds on Facebook, Instagram and Threads for this blog – It’s just another way people can follow the content put out on the blog although people can still subscribe to receive an email each time there is a new post, if they ..read more
Mental Health Cop
1w ago
I’ve avoided this one like the plague! … but it came at me recently, so I thought I can’t dodge it any more! The interface between the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Thankfully for the sake of my head, a lot of this discussion about the interface between the two ..read more
Mental Health Cop
2w ago
It literally doesn’t mean anything to say somebody “has capacity” – or they “lack capacity”, for that matter. It didn’t mean anything when I started writing this blog and it doesn’t really mean anything now. You may have gathered, it makes me want to scream every time I hear it because I’ve done quite a ..read more
Mental Health Cop
2w ago
The Independent Office for Police Conduct publishes a series of bulletins entitled “Learning the Lessons”. They are intended to highlight and summarise various IOPC investigations with a view to ensuring the wider police service thinks about what needs contemplating from those investigations. Episode 43 of their series is exclusively focussed on mental health in policing ..read more
Mental Health Cop
3w ago
In 2011, two devastating, unprovoked attacks took place in south London which gave rise to a number of issues of interest, for those following this website. Nicola Edgington was subsequently convicted of murder and attempted murder, for her attacks on Sally Hodkin and Kerry Clark and imprisoned. She was subsequently transferred to Rampton high secure ..read more
Mental Health Cop
3w ago
Following the dreadful, terrible killings and attacks in Nottingham last year, a series of reviews was announced after the sentencing of Valdo Calocane. There are many reviews ongoing in to policing and healthcare as well as prosecution and court decisions — the first of them has reported today, March 25th. His Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service ..read more
Mental Health Cop
3w ago
The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom recently published an article about Acute Behavioural Disturbance (ABD) and also referencing Excited Delirium, which may or may not be the same thing – we might get on to that in a moment. The article “reveals” what anyone reading this blog will have known for over a decade ..read more
Mental Health Cop
1M ago
A new Preventing Future Deaths report has caused me some consternation, I’ll be honest. Issued by His Majesty’s Inner West London, the PFD notice follows the death of Roberto Bettello in September 2020 after he was detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 and removed to an Emergency Department as a Place ..read more
Mental Health Cop
1M ago
About a year ago, Matthew Lennox, a mentally ill man entered St Joseph’s School in Slough, Berkshire in possession of a knife and whilst claiming to have a gun which had not be seen). His presence there caused the staff to place the school in to lockdown, with classroom teachers locking doors and getting children ..read more
Mental Health Cop
1M ago
How confident are you about your knowledge? I was told by an inspector when I joined in 1998 “knowledge is confidence” when it comes to policing and the law. Now I’m at the opposite end my career I’m left with the contradiction we can’t also say “confidence is knowledge”. Confidence, most certainly is NOT knowledge ..read more