Jumper on the bridge

gavinmcant said:
He wouldn’t necessarily have been admitted after the first one. I sat with more than one bloke who’d been off the Tyne bridge into the river, been fished and and waited 4 hours to see the CAT who said he’s fine and isn’t getting sectioned. They’re just taken back home and usually go on to do something similar in the following days.


The place of safety you speak of used to be custody but custody is no longer deemed an appropriate place for a person in crisis to be kept. A and E? Not really the craic to have a suicidal intoxicated person sat for hours in the middle of the rest of the people waiting to be seen.
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25 years ago my mate's mother tried to get hit by a tube train having climbed down on to the tracks. They picked her up, patted her down and sent her on her way. She just walked to the next station and climbed down more craftily at the very end of the platform and walked into the tunnel a bit.
Her note said "Better a loving mother than a mad wife"

My mate had been killed about 5 years earlier by a drunk driver. She was an only child.

I do think the social awareness has improved but the appropriate services have not.
Defund the police.
 


CatRyan said:
25 years ago my mate's mother tried to get hit by a tube train having climbed down on to the tracks. They picked her up, patted her down and sent her on her way. She just walked to the next station and climbed down more craftily at the very end of the platform and walked into the tunnel a bit.
Her note said "Better a loving mother than a mad wife"

My mate had been killed about 5 years earlier by a drunk driver. She was an only child.

I do think the social awareness has improved but the appropriate services have not.
Defund the police.
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And invest it into what instead? The Police will always be first on scene to such incidents to assess the risk to the public and deal with any dangers. After that, the police should be able to pass on the individual requiring help to another agency. Those agencies exist but rarely seem to want the responsibility.
Removing funding from the police would just reduce the, usually crucial, response time.
 
gavinmcant said:
And invest it into what instead? The Police will always be first on scene to such incidents to assess the risk to the public and deal with any dangers. After that, the police should be able to pass on the individual requiring help to another agency. Those agencies exist but rarely seem to want the responsibility.
Removing funding from the police would just reduce the, usually crucial, response time.
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Having better support before it got to jumping off a bridge. Social workers working in police stations and going with them to such cases has been trialled effectively etc
 
CatRyan said:
Having better support before it got to jumping off a bridge. Social workers working in police stations and going with them to such cases has been trialled effectively etc
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A social worker going to a bridge jumper? Why on earth would that make any difference? Negotiator maybe. Police are more or less social workers in uniform these days anyway.
 
gavinmcant said:
A social worker going to a bridge jumper? Why on earth would that make any difference? Negotiator maybe. Police are more or less social workers in uniform these days anyway.
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That is the issue 🤦🏻‍♀️

I'm not being critical of the police. They are not as well equipped for such an event and there should be more preventative care not to mention the increasing criminalisation of Mental Health issues as a result of police responses.
 
CatRyan said:
25 years ago my mate's mother tried to get hit by a tube train having climbed down on to the tracks. They picked her up, patted her down and sent her on her way. She just walked to the next station and climbed down more craftily at the very end of the platform and walked into the tunnel a bit.
Her note said "Better a loving mother than a mad wife"

My mate had been killed about 5 years earlier by a drunk driver. She was an only child.

I do think the social awareness has improved but the appropriate services have not.
Defund the police.
Click to expand...

And into what? You mentioned social workers but there will always be mental health issues and suicides. It may prevent some but modern day life and its strains, no social worker can solve those problems imo.
Taking a mental health worker with cops is not safe nor practical. A lot of the time a person in crisis is violent and then there is the 5 other immediate response incidents either side of the mental health job that have no place for a mental health nurse.
A lot of suicides happen after recent contact with a practitioner, even on the same day
 
BlackOps said:
And into what? You mentioned social workers but there will always be mental health issues and suicides. It may prevent some but modern day life and its strains, no social worker can solve those problems imo.
Taking a mental health worker with cops is not safe nor practical. A lot of the time a person in crisis is violent and then there is the 5 other immediate response incidents either side of the mental health job that have no place for a mental health nurse.
A lot of suicides happen after recent contact with a practitioner, even on the same day
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It had been trialled with great success.
 
CatRyan said:
That is the issue 🤦🏻‍♀️

I'm not being critical of the police. They are not as well equipped for such an event and there should be more preventative care not to mention the increasing criminalisation of Mental Health issues as a result of police responses.
Click to expand...

I understand that you’d like to see people who are qualified to help with mental health issues on the ground and at the outset. That would be ideal. The reason it isn’t going to happen is that people threatening suicide or having an episode are often desperate and can be violent. You need the police there first to assess their demeanour and to get them out of immediate danger. That should be the end of the polices job right there. There should be more provision for mental health so that people don’t get to the stage of threatening harm to themselves or others. But I’d suggest there are better pools of funding to dip into to pay for it than the police who are already underfunded and overstretched.
 
CatRyan said:
25 years ago my mate's mother tried to get hit by a tube train having climbed down on to the tracks. They picked her up, patted her down and sent her on her way. She just walked to the next station and climbed down more craftily at the very end of the platform and walked into the tunnel a bit.
Her note said "Better a loving mother than a mad wife"

My mate had been killed about 5 years earlier by a drunk driver. She was an only child.

I do think the social awareness has improved but the appropriate services have not.
Defund the police.
Click to expand...
As usual Catryan opens her mouth and spouts absolute shite .The response to mental health has improved immeasurably over the years and the relevant emergency services are constantly receiving training on the matter. There is an almost 24hr cover in Northumbra Police where a mental health triage nurse works in conjunction with the police and is available to attend incidents or give advice over the phone.
What has changed over the years is the amount of people with problems who are treated whilst remaining in the community. That is a real thorny subject as I doubt anyone wants to go back to the days of massive asylums housing people with problems but we do need places to put people who are in crisis.
 
CatRyan said:
It had been trialled with great success.
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CatRyan said:
It had been trialled with great success.
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Is this the thing in Kentucky where a social worker went to non violent mental illness cases ( where in the UK a paramedic is as likely to get called as the police). If it is, it doesn’t really bare comparison to someone threatening to jump from a bridge and the thrust of the issue there was that a lot of people were killed who had mental health problems when a twitchy, armed US copper turned up to deal with the situation.
 
xmfd said:
I've always wondered, would the drop into the water kill you instantly every time, or could you end up drowing in the water for a few minutes? Sorry if it seems insincere, just always wondered.
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People dive off cliffs higher and then do it again. That’s not without training like and they are as fit as fiddles
Didn’t that wearside jack gadgie survive wearmouth bridge ?
gavinmcant said:
A social worker going to a bridge jumper? Why on earth would that make any difference? Negotiator maybe. Police are more or less social workers in uniform these days anyway.
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Teacher friends say the same, as a paramedic I’m seeing it too but I always have ( 30+ yrs)
Defund the police? No! Just fund mental health services better, more ears for vulnerable people and then if you have cpppers sitting about eating free doughnuts, then defund them but that’s not going to happen.
If I have a leaky tap I don’t phone an electrician
 
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cornish mackem said:
People dive off cliffs higher and then do it again. That’s not without training like and they are as fit as fiddles
Didn’t that wearside jack gadgie survive wearmouth bridge ?

Teacher friends say the same, as a paramedic I’m seeing it too but I always have ( 30+ yrs)
Defund the police? No! Just fund mental health services better, more ears for vulnerable people and then if you have cpppers sitting about eating free doughnuts, then defund them but that’s not going to happen.
If I have a leaky tap I don’t phone an electrician
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Not just funding mental health services, Police should have more access to basic mental health training. There's some local officers here who are pretty good and we have street triage teams with police and mental health nurses but they can't be at every police appointment. Giving basic mental health training to all officers and front line nurses and paramedics would be hugely advantageous.

However, the drive appears to be for mental health staff to have more physical health training, rather than the other way round.
 
rudd said:
Not just funding mental health services, Police should have more access to basic mental health training. There's some local officers here who are pretty good and we have street triage teams with police and mental health nurses but they can't be at every police appointment. Giving basic mental health training to all officers and front line nurses and paramedics would be hugely advantageous.

However, the drive appears to be for mental health staff to have more physical health training, rather than the other way round.
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Or have mental health staff responding to mental health jobs leaving teachers to teach, coppers to stop crime and ambulances treating sick and injured people
 
palm 1 said:
As usual Catryan opens her mouth and spouts absolute shite .The response to mental health has improved immeasurably over the years and the relevant emergency services are constantly receiving training on the matter. There is an almost 24hr cover in Northumbra Police where a mental health triage nurse works in conjunction with the police and is available to attend incidents or give advice over the phone.
What has changed over the years is the amount of people with problems who are treated whilst remaining in the community. That is a real thorny subject as I doubt anyone wants to go back to the days of massive asylums housing people with problems but we do need places to put people who are in crisis.
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You could've just stopped there to be fair.
 
McRoker said:
Just out on my early morning run. Ran past and realised something wasn't right so stopped to check. Two young kids on bikes were there as well and were trying to contact the police as I was talking to him. I'm not trained in anything like this so it was very difficult trying to say the right thing. Just.kept telling him I've felt how he was feeling before and there is help available. Thankfully he seemed to respond and went with the police.
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Well done mate
 
palm 1 said:
As usual Catryan opens her mouth and spouts absolute shite .The response to mental health has improved immeasurably over the years and the relevant emergency services are constantly receiving training on the matter. There is an almost 24hr cover in Northumbra Police where a mental health triage nurse works in conjunction with the police and is available to attend incidents or give advice over the phone.
What has changed over the years is the amount of people with problems who are treated whilst remaining in the community. That is a real thorny subject as I doubt anyone wants to go back to the days of massive asylums housing people with problems but we do need places to put people who are in crisis.
Click to expand...
The availability and acceptance of casual drug taking has multiplied the problem.
 

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