Policing Mental Health Distress

This project aims to better understand those experiencing mental health difficulties who come into contact with Police Scotland,  and assess their traits, underlying health vulnerabilities and what healthcare service they are referred to. We will view the patterns of healthcare service use, to those offered and compare them to the general population. 

 

Research focus

The project will link administrative data from Police Scotland’s Vulnerable Person’s Database to a range of health records held by Public Health Scotland. 

1.            Understand the nature of police interactions that involve mental health distress (MHD).

2.            Estimate the prevalence and frequency of one-time and repeated police contact(s) for persons experiencing MHD.

3.            Determine the characteristics and underlying health and social vulnerabilities of persons who have police contact related to MHD.

4.            Examine the types and pathways of health system contact preceding police interactions related to MHD and identify potential patterns of escalation.

5.            Understand the outcomes or resolutions of MHD-related police interactions.

  • Public Health Scotland’s Unscheduled Care Datamart (including Ambulance call outs, A&E admissions, Hospital admissions and prescribing data)
  • National Records of Scotland’s deaths records
  • Geographical data and UPRN data

Professor Susan McVie, Dr Allison Kurpiel, Dr Sarah Couper (Public Health Scotland) and Harry Schone (Police Scotland)

When publications or outputs are available, they will be shared here.

Publications, Outputs and Media Coverage