A Leicestershire Police officer is to spend the next three weeks in the USA and Canada learning about emergency response to mental health crisis, after being awarded the prestigious Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship.
This week, during Mental Health Awareness Week, PC Alex Crisp, who is currently working in the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner as the mental health partnership development manager, will travel to Memphis, Tennessee to meet the Memphis Crisis Intervention Team (CIT).
CIT is a specialised unit made up of police from each precinct in the area. They are called upon to respond to incidents that present officers with complex issues relating to mental health.
Alex will then head to LA to meet officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and take part in their Mental Health Intervention Training, a 36-hour intensive course that covers all aspects of mental illness and crisis intervention.
Next he will travel to Vancouver to visit an initiative very similar to Leicestershire Police’s own mental health triage car, which sees an officer and a nurse working together in a police response car to provide on-site assessment and intervention for people with psychiatric problems.
Known as Car 87, the program is a partnership between the Vancouver Police Department and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, and has been running since 1984.
Whilst there he will also spend time with the assertive community treatment team, that takes treatments to people in the community, and the assertive outreach team - a group of nurses, social workers, psychiatrists and officers that work together to support people who suffer from addictions and mental health and help them transition from emergency department care to appropriate community services.
Finally he will spend three days in Portland, Maine with the Portland Police Department, which has a mental health coordinator who manages a behavioural health response program and facilitates crisis intervention training.
“Providing better services for those in need is a big passion of mine so I’m extremely honoured to have been given the opportunity to find out about mental health response provision in other countries,” said Alex.
“The places I have chosen to visit are each using systems and processes that I am keen to learn more about. I am hoping to bring back lesson learnt and look at what improvement we can make here in Leicestershire.”
Alex is one of 150 people nationally, and one of nine in the East Midlands to receive the fellowship. In July he will complete phase 2 of the programme and spend two weeks in Australia examining mental health response in the outback.
Improving the response, service and outcomes for those with mental health needs is a key priority for Police and Crime Commissioner Sir Clive Loader, as set out in his Police and Crime Plan.
Sir Clive said: “I decided to have someone who was dedicated to mental health working within my office because I am keen to see services improve, and for emergency services to come together and work in partnership to do this. I am thrilled for Alex and am very much looking forward to seeing what he learns and will take from other countries during this incredible opportunity.”
Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual UK event supported by the Mental Health Foundation which has been working since 2000 to promote better mental health.
Posted on Monday 9th May 2016