Annual Progress Review for PhD now completed - Very much hoping they write down the nice things they said after asking me lots of questions! - bouncing at use of the word "impressive". Came out with an extended reading list as well, which is helpful. #PhDlife @unibirmingham.bsky.social

I'm in Manchester today with @sarasiobhan.bsky.social and @georgejulian.bsky.social at their #socialmurder festival, the first of its kind. Those of us with learning disabilities die far earlier than the rest - we know this and yet don't do what we can to change it. = Social murder.

NHS to take over troubled mental health hospital - www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Treatment of man in mental health crisis at North Wales police station 'objectively unreasonable' - www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-w...

Right Care, Right Person: A breakthrough in mental health interactions or risky and dangerous? [SUBSCRIBER ARTICLE] policinginsight.com/feature/anal... @ianweinfass.bsky.social @mentalhealthcop.bsky.social

NEW BLOG - "The Least Restrictive Thing". Widely misunderstood - the "least restrictive thing" is to do nothing at all, but doing nothing usually isn't very safe. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/07/01/t...

NEW BLOG - "Edward Muwanga" An unusual PFD from a London Coroner about where s136 MHA can be used. Do we think he's right?! mentalhealthcop.com/2026/06/24/e...

RCRP gets a mention in the press release from the solicitors representing Christopher Karieren's family. He walked out of an Emergency Department during bed shortage after inadequate observations by the NHS, but the police did not to respond. n=27 www.hudgellsolicitors.co.uk/client-stori...

NEW BLOG - "Edward Muwanga" An unusual PFD from a London Coroner about where s136 MHA can be used. Do we think he's right?! mentalhealthcop.com/2026/06/24/e...

Man detained (under the Mental Health Act) after James Bulger's grave vandalised (twice). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW BLOG - "Home Office Section 136 Data" Links to all the official statistics on use of s136 since a national reporting requirement was introduced. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/06/17/h...

Off to #RCPsychIC26 in Liverpool — Are the police over/under involved in mental health? SPOILER ALERT — YES, THEY ARE.

NEW PAGE - "Home Office 136 Publications" It's been frustrating for a while to easily find Home Office 136 data from the various years, so I've put together a short resources page with all the hyperlinks to the various spreadsheets for it. mentalhealthcop.com/home-office-...

#OfficerDown @ Northumbria Police. This one's hitting a little harder because PC Jess Turnbull was just 19yrs old and had served less than a year in a job many people simply would not do. All kinds of terrible and sad, all at once. RIP, Jess. x www.northumbria.police.uk/news/northum...

Spent 3-days finishing a 10,000 word submission for a PhD progress review - doing it just makes me realise how much more work there is to do! Was determined to finish by midnight so I'll give it a final read first thing tomorrow, then get it submitted. #phdlife @unibirmingham.bsky.social

Julian Hendy of @hundredfamilies now giving evidence at the #NottinghamInquiry - This is going to quietly take the roof off: a man with very relevant personal experience and decades of campaigning experience on a topic he's passionate about, for obvious and legitimate reasons.

Another public inquiry due (to add to Southport, Nottingham and Essex). All for things front line professionals and others have been warning about for YEARS. Tell me again this isn't about wilful, unhearing leadership in public agencies and politics. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

RECENT BLOG - "No Warrant, No Police" “No warrant, no police is a genuinely stupid and dangerous idea." mentalhealthcop.com/2026/03/11/n...

Just in case this needs pointing out (when it really shouldn't), *ONLY* a police officer can execute a warrant issued under s135(1) MHA - - No point asking an AMHP to do it themselves. - No point suggesting the ambulance service do it. By law, *ONLY* the police can do this. 1/

PFD No 22 to be telling us something concerning which was not just predictable, but was, in fact, predicted! And yet no evaluation, little to no public comment, bland press releases which ignore the issues and the concerns which were made known before people died. For shame.

Police 'called repeatedly' before woman found dead - A PFD has been issued and @CheshirePolice (in receipt of their 2nd PFD for RCRP) are yet to respond. 1/ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW BLOG - "Call For Evidence" The Government has announced a consultation on a new mental health strategy for England. A short post containing the summary, press release and submission portal if you want to make your views known. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/05/15/c...

Mental health unit under investigation over abuse concerns. A statutory "section 42" inquiry by the local authority has been lauched. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Spent a great day in Cardiff with delivering CPD for Cardiff and Vale AMHPs. A whole day going through AMHPing challenges in custody, Nottingham, the “no beds” / unlawful detention challenges, Surrey Police v PC and Ors of course, RCRP. Next stop - Shrewsbury AMHPs.

Man shot dead by police was a "quite man" who "had mental health issues" say neighbours. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW BLOG - "Independent Mental Health Investigations." We have, in principle, independent mechanisms for unexplained or unexpected deaths in police or prison custody. Why not in mental health care? mentalhealthcop.com/2026/05/13/i...

The Nottingham Tragedy: Policies to prevent future killings by psychiatric patients Yesterday's Policy Exchange seminar - www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BU0...

NEW BLOG - "Independent Mental Health Investigations." We have, in principle, independent mechanisms for unexplained or unexpected deaths in police or prison custody. Why not in mental health care? mentalhealthcop.com/2026/05/13/i...

NEW BLOG - "No PFD Issued" Not all inquests lead to a PFD and sometimes that's because organisations reassure a Coroner during an inquest. So how many inquests have seen no PFD issued, where there were problems and concerns? SPOILER: we don't know. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/05/06/n...

Four-fifths of UK mental health nurses say their workload is unmanageable. I'm surprised it's that low, frankly - and I suspect AMHPs, psychiatrists and others would say the same. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

NEW BLOG - “More Ways To Misuse ‘Capacity’.” We had misuse for criminal investigation recently; this is about misuse of the term ‘capacity’ for other legal reasons. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/05/03/m...

Section 140 of the Mental Health Act has now been law for over 67yrs - We're probably nearing the end of the trial period and we can then tell people, so they've at least heard of it and can start to think about the implications. mentalhealthcop.com/2014/01/23/s...

NEW BLOG - "Tramlines, Not Guidelines" A new Preventing Future Deaths report sees a coroner using a memorable turn of phrase to highlight a particular problem in the way policy is implemented. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/04/30/t...

NEW PREVENTING FUTURE DEATH REPORT - RCRP completed inquest 26m, PFD no 22, this time for @cheshirepolice.bsky.social who have already had one RCRP PFD and now have a second. "Tramlines, not guidelines" ... I think that will be the blog title when I write it. www.judiciary.uk/prevention-o...

NEW BLOG - "Lessons Learned?" A new PFD for Lincolnshire Police after the sad death of a man who was restrained. Echoes of other deaths from earlier in the century where claims were expressly made - albeit not by Lincolnshire - of lessons learned. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/04/29/l...

Note to self: must crack on with PhD - A critical realist, qualitative document analysis of PFDs and autoethnography connected to RCRP. 10,000 words due by end of May for annual progress review.

New published article from @uclcrimescience.bsky.social researchers on RCRP in an English police force. See what you think. I said "no" three times before the end of the first sentence and spent a lot of time wondering about a lack of citations for claims made. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

NEW BLOG - "Legally Nonsensical" Even since @capacitylaw's evidence at the #NottinghamInquiry and other barristers backing up the point he made, there are STILL mental health professionals and police arguing the toss about 'capacity' in criminal law. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/04/22/l...

Excellent from @jerryratcliffe.net - Diversion | Mental Health | Alternative Responses | The "Doorman" Fallacy. "Alternative responders have a narrow role. For all their imperfections, police, like hotel doormen, have a broad social function." www.vitalcitynyc.org/policing-alt...

NEW BLOG - "Scottish Handovers in ED" This one is in response to Scottish Police Federation and @policescotland.bsky.social after recent evidence to the Scottish Justice Committee. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/04/15/s...

NEW BLOG - "The System" Accidentally published two posts on the same day - apologies! They're out there now so may as well leave it that way. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/04/15/t...

We knew “Right Care, Right Person” had been relevant in the Southport Inquiry and it’s got its own little section in the report. Quite a lot going on in between the lines of this one! 1/

NEW BLOG - "Southport" First impressions - the report is +750 pages long, so it is inevitably based on a snap shot / skim read. mentalhealthcop.com/2026/04/13/s...

"Every review has added up to a comprehensive audit of why nobody was responsible … this was not an unfortunate one-off, but yet another grotesque whole-system failure.” - Excellent from @NotThatBigIan in the Telegraph (£). www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04...

A forensic psychiatrist working in prison (who I've known for years / decades!) recently told me of something called "the red route". Mentally ill suspects arrested for serious crimes deliberately not assessed MHA in police custody, because of a presumption to prosecute. 1/

NEW BLOG - "Supervised Discharge" A new legal mechanism, introduced in the Mental Health Act 2025 and in effect since February, is "supervised discharge". Advice around this going awry is "call the police" - see new post for details! mentalhealthcop.com/2026/04/08/s...

Lovely eMail from an officer who used my blog to find a weird "Community Treatment Order" answer - "Thanks to you my tissue thin veneer of appearing competent is intact for another day!" That's *exactly* who the blog was for: frontline police officers - www.mentalhealthcop.com

NEW BLOG - "Have You Heard of RAVE?!" Another way to look at a threshold for police involvement - Resistance, Aggression, Violence or Escape. I was recently asked if I'd heard of my own idea. 😂 mentalhealthcop.com/2026/04/01/h...

NEW BLOG - "Have You Heard of RAVE?!" Another way to look at a threshold for police involvement - Resistance, Aggression, Violence or Escape. I was recently asked if I'd heard of my own idea. 😂 mentalhealthcop.com/2026/04/01/h...