Port of Tilbury-Police Constable

[Fedster + 1,307]

'It's simple really, it just needs sorting out'.

Zo� Billingham speaking today at the Mental Health and Policing Conference

Date - 25th September 2018
By - Sophie Garrod, Mental Health and Policing Conference, Cardiff

1 Comment

 

Forces have been asked why they allow frontline officers out on the streets without basic mental health training.

HM Inspector of Constabulary, Zoë Billingham, today leaked findings ahead of the publication of its report into mental health.

Officers were found to have a “good understanding” of what mental health is, said Ms Billingham, however there needs to be mandatory face-to-face training where they sit down, talk and learn from people who have gone through mental health crises.

She continued: “What police officer would be allowed out on the streets without basic understanding of the law of the land - so why do we allow police officers out on the street without even the most rudimentary, basic understanding of communications when dealing with people with mental ill health?

“It’s simple really, it just needs sorting out.”

The HMI pointed out afterwards she understands there are only so many days available for officers to train, however, she said it should be made a priority.

Ms Billingham also hit out at the College of Policing, taking a dig at its definition of mental health, which she “hates” as well as its online training packages.

Mentally ill people should not be referred to as suspects, as stated in the College’s guidelines, as it “immediately puts an officer’s mindset into criminal investigation mode,” she added, while stating she was “wound up” by its NCALT packages being used as a “tick in the box, done and dusted” approach.

Ms Billingham did say she was “absolutely delighted” by the care, empathy and commitment demonstrated by the police during recent inspections.

“There is no doubting the commitment we saw, so my delight is probably surpassing any delight I have ever experienced as an HMI. It has been extraordinary”, she added.

Four out of five cases involving mentally ill people were allocated to the right person – in comparison to other cases where officers are “ill-equipped”– and in more than 90 per cent of cases, mental health victims received a “stratospherically good” service from the police in comparison to other areas, she added.

But there is a whole system failure which public servants are in danger of being complicit in in terms of “papering over the cracks”, she told delegates, and has been left shocked by the system which is continuously letting mentally ill people down.

“If we as HMIs continue to berate forces for not having enough officers available to sit for 24 hours with a suicidal teenager, then I am failing in my job if that’s what I do," she added.

“It’s a problem for all of us. I think we need to stop pretending that we can cope and we need to stop pretending that it’s alright.”

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[SimonT + 1,185]

 

How much basic mental health training is enough to achieve whatever it it she wants us to? How much specialism do I need? How will I maintain it? Do I get a yearly refresher? What level is enough to deal with every possible encounter? Our mental health nurse has stacks of qualifications and still struggles frequently. 

I appreciate what she is saying, but it's not the police who need to up their game. When someone who is mentally ill comes to police notice its already too late. 

I can communicate with mentally ill people, I do so every day at times. 

I can communicate that the crisis team won't come and see them, that out of hours is closed due to budget cuts. That I only have one power to help them and there are no beds in the county so we will sit in AnE until that power runs out and I'm detaining them illegally. 

I can tell them that because of parity of esteem I can't drive the 20 minute's to hospital, I have to call an ambulance and wait 2 hours and that they will get a uniformed police escourt, just like someone with a broken leg. 

I will use a power of pursuasion. I will problem solve and hope things will go OK and the person will be OK and I won't get the iopc treatment. 

Extra training would be nice, but the list of things that would be better is much larger. 

[Ether + 1,395]

How much mental heath training has MS Billingham had to criticise the amount police officers have been given? 

[Indiana Jones + 1,082]

How much mental heath training has MS Billingham had to criticise the amount police officers have been given? 

She's not saying her level of training is better than ours, she's saying ours is rubbish. And she's right.
In 12 years, my MH training equates to an NCALT package and two emails. That's not just poor, it's downright negligent.

[Zulu 22 + 4,571]

Ms Billingham is just showing how out of her depth she is. We rely on qualified Mental Health practitioners, who are supposed to know what they are doing. They demonstrate time after time that, even they, are out of their depth. What mental health qualifications has Billingham got. Perhaps we should be trained as Doctors,  Social Workers, Lawyers, Mechanics, etc etc.  I do not know of any Mental Health experts who are trained as Police Officer's.

I was Fed up being let down by the medics response to us almost every time when exercising powers under the mental health act and, time and time again those practioners were reluctant to authorise detention. They were worse than Social Workers, and that is saying something. As usual when something is wrong, blame the Police. Ms Billingham you are an HMI, so act like one instead of attacking those who actually have the balls to be on the front line making instantaneous decisions.

[Reasonable Man + 1,231]

Ms Billingham is just showing how out of her depth she is. We rely on qualified Mental Health practitioners, who are supposed to know what they are doing. They demonstrate time after time that, even they, are out of their depth. What mental health qualifications has Billingham got. Perhaps we should be trained as Doctors,  Social Workers, Lawyers, Mechanics, etc etc.  I do not know of any Mental Health experts who are trained as Police Officer's.
I was Fed up being let down by the medics response to us almost every time when exercising powers under the mental health act and, time and time again those practioners were reluctant to authorise detention. They were worse than Social Workers, and that is saying something. As usual when something is wrong, blame the Police. Ms Billingham you are an HMI, so act like one instead of attacking those who actually have the balls to be on the front line making instantaneous decisions.

Did you read the article at the top of the post? Zoe is praising the front line officers - those who ‘have the balls’ to be there. Her criticism is that they are being let down by inadequate training support. She criticises NCALT packages - as do many officers on these threads, and the College of Policing - that institution that you have attacked several times.
Did you just see HMIC and go into attack mode?

[Inbtsiyp + 347]

I accept MS Billingham is being in no way critical of the officers on the ground. In fact, she, as far as I can tell is being quite the opposite, however, I really don’t agree with the proposals to support it.

We don’t need more training, we could probably afford to have much less if the agencies and authorities that are supposed to be responsible for dealing with such issues stepped up and did what they should.

We ignore crime and close cases at a moments glance because we haven’t got the resources, it’s not in the public interest or the evidence hasn’t been handed to us on a plate by some poor victim who’s only contact with us was when they spoke to a member of staff over the phone to report their crime.

Yet we will quickly allocate one, two or three units over multiple shifts to watch a patient in a hospital that no medical staff want to deal with or to respond to 999 calls from people who are feeling down because their care plan written by supposed professionals says call the police not us.

As police we are subject to more scrutiny and more criticism than any other public service yet we continue to take on the responsibilities and demands (normally the most high risk) of every other agency out there at the expense of the real core duties of crime prevention and detection.

The council don’t exercise and employ people to enforce the bylaws and laws they are empower to do unless they can make money from it.

The NHS provide a p**s poor service that is lacking in capacity and/or capability when it comes to MH and does nothing to reduce the strain on police just increase it.

As for social services well I can honestly say in six years of dealing with them I haven’t got one good word to say about them.

All three of those bodies failings are the reasons why we can’t get on with our role. Why we can’t spend time improving our crime fighting and prevention skills. Why we spend countless hours ticking boxes on ncalts to lean other peoples roles. Why we spend even more hours just sitting with and talking to people trying to reassure them that things will get better when deep down we know that once someone from the NHS has finally taken responsibility for them they will be released back into the big wide world for us to only repeat the same old charade the next night.

Ms Billingham thank you for the support, thank you for the praise but please don’t sail us down the river and set us up for more time dealing with other agencies problems. Please fight back and push back and push back saying these officers are doing fantastic but enough is enough you (NHS, social services, council) take responsibility and do what’s is required.

[IrateShrike + 1,847]

Would she call a vet to come and fix her washing machine?  Thought not.

[Mac7 808]

Good old HMIC. Ever the critic, rarely be providing solutions or perspective of where and how policing is today. This should have been a recommendation or advice. I struggle to see why someone would yield so much power. She criticises NCALT for being a tick box but what she is proposing will be akin to a tick box to satisfy the latest HMIC brainwave. Ironic.

 

Do we send paramedics or firefighters out on the streets with basic law knowledge? Do nurses have knowledge of law and criminal prosecutions?

 

Perhaps we should also have basic knowledge in social work, the care system, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, the list goes on.

 

Meanwhile people are getting stabbed, shot and drug dealers running free to peddle their trade.

 

[Reasonable Man + 1,231]

Good old HMIC. Ever the critic, rarely be providing solutions or perspective of where and how policing is today. This should have been a recommendation or advice. I struggle to see why someone would yield so much power. She criticises NCALT for being a tick box but what she is proposing will be akin to a tick box to satisfy the latest HMIC brainwave. Ironic.
 
Do we send paramedics or firefighters out on the streets with basic law knowledge? Do nurses have knowledge of law and criminal prosecutions?
 
Perhaps we should also have basic knowledge in social work, the care system, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, the list goes on.
 
Meanwhile people are getting stabbed, shot and drug dealers running free to peddle their trade.
 

So you half understand what HMICFRS does.
Yes, it is their job to criticise. It is not their job to provide solutions. In their reports are recommendations and areas for improvement. It’s then down to the police service to react to those.
The Home Office and police service itself sets the standards, HMICFRS then inspects against those.

[Reasonable Man + 1,231]

Would she call a vet to come and fix her washing machine?  Thought not.

If there was a national shortage of washing machine fixers and the Govt decreed that Vets are the emergency backup for washing machine disasters then I guess she would.

[Mac7 808]

So you half understand what HMICFRS does.
Yes, it is their job to criticise. It is not their job to provide solutions. In their reports are recommendations and areas for improvement. It’s then down to the police service to react to those.
The Home Office and police service itself sets the standards, HMICFRS then inspects against those.

It should be their job to report back to the government as well police forces as to why police forces may need improving in areas and recognise that fault is not always at the doors of individual police forces.

Why are the police always the fall back service for over capacity of other public services? We have enough of our own work to do. If we have an increase in demand for mental health then why aren’t the HMIC working with the CQC or NICE to address the issue rather than criticise the police who are barely keeping the wheel on each day.

Where is the criticism of the fire service for not multi skilling and relieving the pressure on the ambulance service that’s been talked about for years.

Constant inspections, recommendations for improvement and criticisms gets you nowhere. You end up with a situation where you can no longer see the wood for the trees.

[Reasonable Man + 1,231]

It should be their job to report back to the government as well police forces as to why police forces may need improving in areas and recognise that fault is not always at the doors of individual police forces.

Why are the police always the fall back service for over capacity of other public services? We have enough of our own work to do. If we have an increase in demand for mental health then why aren’t the HMIC working with the CQC or NICE to address the issue rather than criticise the police who are barely keeping the wheel on each day.

Where is the criticism of the fire service for not multi skilling and relieving the pressure on the ambulance service that’s been talked about for years.

Constant inspections, recommendations for improvement and criticisms gets you nowhere. You end up with a situation where you can no longer see the wood for the trees.

They do report back to Government.
She mentions the broader public services in her report - but HMICFRS inspects the police and fire and rescue services. It’s for the Govt to pull it all together.
Criticism of the fire service will be in the reports on the fire service.
Constant criticisms? I read - ‘Officers were found to have a “good understanding” of what mental health is, said Ms Billingham,
Ms Billingham did say she was “absolutely delighted” by the care, empathy and commitment demonstrated by the police during recent inspections.
“There is no doubting the commitment we saw, so my delight is probably surpassing any delight I have ever experienced as an HMI. It has been extraordinary”, she added.
... in more than 90 per cent of cases, mental health victims received a “stratospherically good” service from the police in comparison to other areas, she added.
“It’s a problem for all of us. I think we need to stop pretending that we can cope and we need to stop pretending that it’s alright.”’
Doesn’t read like constant criticism to me.

[Mac7 808]

But you could do more.......

I stand by the fact that it is not our place to pick up the slack from other failing services.

[Radman + 2,163]

We've created this problem within society by trying to do things as cheaply as possible, care in the community has been an absolute failure so far that it has led to tragic outcomes on numerous occasions now and nothing has been done about it over the span of decades it has been implemented. The vast majority of railway fatalities I have personally attended and investigated where suicide was the verdict, almost all of the people had extensive contact with mental health teams, had weekly visits from nurses but all seemed to be struggling to engage properly with services, take their medication properly or even look after themselves adequately. 

Mental health incidents now frankly forms a larger part of my core role than actual policing, some far more serious than others but I can almost guarantee on afters today I will be called to an incident involving a suicide attempt or mentally vulnerable person coming into contact with the railway.

I also believe and this is perhaps more controversial of me that not only are we failing as a society to protect our most vulnerable adequately but we are failing to ensure young people especially have a positive outlook on their lives. We seem to be obsessed with labelling individuals as ill or suffering from a disorder or condition which has a dramatic negative impact on their lives and seems to stall lots of people before they've even begun living. Many young men I come across have no direction in life, they spend all day either playing on their consoles and smoking cannabis, wasting their potential, locking themselves away from society/work. When you ask them if they want to go out and work or create a positive future for themselves they throw roadblocks in their way that have been told to them time and time again:

"I have a personality disorder."

"I can't do that because of my depression."

"I get anxious around new people."

This is a regular problem and seems to develop into more serious mental health problems later on down the line... A young 18 year old man with few qualifications, no job, no partner, no drive, who spends all day locked away in their room achieving NOTHING at all is going to have depression, purely because they aren't active, aren't participating and have little purpose or structure to their lives.

That is my take on it anyhow.