At our WI meeting held on 10th March we were hoping to bring to light some of the local issues and information about services for vulnerable people linked to National WI Care not Custody campaign and we were not disappointed. We heard interesting, informative and touching contributions from our speakers. The presentation from 365 Support provided us with the context and issues raised by the WI campaign as well as some frightening statistics about how big the challenges are of mental illness and those with learning disabilities in the prison system now or likely to be vulnerable to being so. They provided two case studies that illustrated the vital and important care and support needed for those referred to them in crisis. We also heard two brave testimonies from Ant and Ryan about the personal challenges of being in custody was for them.  Ant’ was also happy to share his story on this blog :

“When I was 10 my mum was diagnosed with schizophrenia and my life at home was hectic. At around age 11, I began getting into trouble with the police for fighting at school. I continued getting into trouble up until 5 years ago when I too was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

I reckon that I was about age 6 or 7 when I first started hearing voices, I used to call them night terrors. I never told anyone about this as my mum was already going through a lot with her own mental illness. I also used to get paranoid and have delusions, I would see things that weren’t there, it was scary, but I just had to deal with it by myself.

When I was 13/14 I did my first stint in custody, which lasted about 3 months, this was for thief. When I came out I was given a bus pass and told to go to a referral unit – a school for naughty kids. No one checked up on me and my mum was in and out of hospital, so I never really went in.

All together I have spent about 12 years of my life in prison. One time I came out of prison in Ireland and I was so paranoid that I took a boat and made my way to Northern Scotland and hid out for 3 months living in a tent. I had a stove and used to eat what I could find in the farmers fields near by.

During my time in jail I was occasionally treated with medication. This was because I would become violent as I was frustrated. The medication would stop though; no body spoke to me about mental illness and I was never seen by a psychiatrist. Eventually whilst I was serving my last sentence I was assessed to see if I had a mental illness and I was given a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and was taken into hospital for treatment. That turned out to be my last ever prison sentence.

When I look back, I believe that all my sentences were due to the fact that I was mentally ill and it was the only way that I knew to survive. I think that being in prison did not help my mental health, I spent a lot of time alone and when I was with others they were often bad people who perhaps would never get out.

I think that if I had received my treatment earlier my life would have been very different and I wouldn’t have been in and out of jail. At the time though people working in the prisons weren’t trained to identify people who maybe mentally unwell. When you come out, there’s no support, no one helps you to get your life back – and this is very difficult to do especially when you have a mental illness.”

These helped us to really understand what it means for those who have actually experienced how frightening it can be to feel misunderstood, lonely and isolated. They now both have support from people who understand their needs and quality care from 365 Support and this has helped them to turn their lives around for the better. We all wish them well. These insights highlight the inappropriateness of custodial provision for people who are vulnerable and the importance the campaign in supporting those professionals working in the field who are committed to looking for alternative ways of managing this. Ant has given us permission to put his speech on the website for you to read.

We then heard about the work of Merseycare and the collaborative activities with the Police who now have designated officers and training in place to respond appropriately to people who have mental health or learning difficulties. We learnt that Merseyside are actually one of the most advanced in the field and have been working with this agenda since 2002. It was clear that there was an energy and commitment to building collaboration across the various stakeholders and a desire to link the work of others such as the Probation, Youth Services, Children’s Mental Health Service and Magistrates to signing up to working together. Mark Sergeant, the Operational Manager for Liaison and Diversionary Services, Merseycare highlighted that they were now beginning to focus their work with young people since the age of criminal responsibility had been reduced to 10 years old. The concept here is preventing criminalisation, stopping a cycle of criminality starting and giving a child a chance. He also highlighted that there was a growth in support required for Veterans and more investment was needed to work with women suffering domestic violence. It was also suggested that more research and attention should be given to whether prisons as they are designed and managed are appropriate for female prisoners.

There was clearly some amazing work being undertaken by the Police in managing the custody arrangements for all vulnerable people. Merseyside Police has 3 ‘triage’ cars that have Mental Health nurses and Police responding immediately to make sure people are treated appropriately. There are also Mental Health nurses positioned in Custody Suites working alongside officers. They say that the referral time of bringing someone into a police station and placing them in an appropriate and ‘safe’ environment has been reduced from about 15 to 3 hours by all parties working together helped by a greater understanding of the needs of vulnerable prisoners. It’s a salutary statistic that between 20 – 40% of all people picked up by the Police do have a mental health issue.
All this has relied on subsidies, grants and money through various funding streams that in these austere times are under constant threat of being cut. The current funding is only available until 2018, and the funding for the triage cars ends in 2017 – so what happens then? It’s important to remind ourselves that the current level of funding will only keep things as they are and so much work is still to be done. We were asked to continue with our support for this campaign and lobby MP’s and local authorities to make sure that the work can continue to secure the resources needed. When services rely on a funding period it implies it’s a pilot, maybe a flavour of the month agenda; based on what we heard and have read of the WI campaign this is a critical and essential service and the evidence presented to us and the statistics speak for themselves.

Carol Bolton

Southport Central WI, Campaigns Coordinator