“Shut Up And Drive”
February 27, 2008 by inspectorgadget
Today’s main task - attempting to get some interest from a Mental Health Assessment Team. Definition: two approved social workers and a psychiatrist. There is a disturbed, violent and suicidal teenager. Her mother is a decent, caring and completely broken woman.
The hard eyes of the social-workers barely disguise a laziness and lack of compassion that is bordering on the criminal. They trot out all the usual territorial reasons why they can’t help. The checklist of circumstances which prevent them from dealing with the case is comprehensive.
1. She has consumed alcohol 2. She has committed a criminal offence 3. She has taken some illegal drugs.
(naturally she has done one or more of these or she wouldn’t be with us right?)
They want us to keep this poor, sick child in our cells all night. I have the utter cheek to suggest that for many reasons, a police cell might not be the best place for someone who is mentally ill. They look at me with scorn. Like I haven’t been doing this for years, like I don’t know what is going on. But I have the moral advantage because, of all the people present who are being paid to be here, I’m the only one who actually cares.
Thank God for a complete hero of an Asian doctor who is passing by. He agrees immediately to help, incurring visual wrath and contempt from his less well educated team-mates. He doesn’t care about their targets.
I’m so angry that I’m actually having trouble writing this.
A secure residential place is found for her. New medication is dispensed. Mother and daughter are reasonably happy and restored.
Sort of.
I grab the Asian doctor’s hand and pump it up and down, thanking to him profusely. He smiles sadly back at me. He provides a basic level of service that we should all expect and I act as if he has done me a massive favour. His slightly nervous smile is saying “how have we come to this?”
Later, when I’m on my own, I feel sick with it all. I have to walk around in the rain and suck in the air. I want to rush out into the High Street, jump into a taxi and demand “follow that car”.
When the cabbie objects, I will shout “shut up and drive”.
“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’ll know when I get there”.
NOTE: This story is not about all Social Workers; it’s about these particular Social Workers. Ruralshire Social Services hoisted up the white flag long ago.
am I going mad or have you posted that before guv?
Yes brilliant IG,well worth repeating.
Yep, same in my patch, same lame excuses and we are the ones left driving around with a sick mentally ill person in the back of the car.
Mental health suite won’t take ‘em cos they are drunk, custody won’t take them because its not an appropriate place for them to be and we play piggy in the middle. I have even been locked in with them to prevent us from handing over and running (some might say that’s par for the course)
Same sh*t different part of the country
Why do these people always come to us at about 4pm. We ring social services and they stall up untill 4.55pm, which is when the turn the answer machine on an go home.
It’s then down to EDT, who are just a uninterested, unreliable and uncompassionate. After about 5hrs a psychiatrist will turn up. He/she will wait about 30mins and phone EDT themselves to find out where the social workers are only to be told ‘they’ve just left the office’.
Sound familiar?
I have attended sheltered housing accomodation for people with mental health issues, the patients are usually cared for by one or two carers. They tell me said person is mad and can we take them to the hospital under a s136 as that is what some social worker has told them.
I have refused on the grounds that a) Mr Mad is in his home, not in a public place. b) He is in the care of social services c) he is in one of their units d) we’re not a frigging taxi service e) it’s their problem not ours.
I have walked out and left them too it. I got a pat on the back from the inspector for that one.
Shocking but not surprising - this from today’s local news up here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7267472.stm
shows it’s a widespread problem.
Moose - I’ve been in your situation before and have been about a millisecond from nicking the care worker / doctor / whatever for unlawful imprisonment. I’d threatened to do it but I don’t think that he believed me.
I guess it was when I phoned custody (in his hearing) and booked a place for him and took a puposeful step towards him that he finally believed me. The look on his face was something to behold!
Try it if you ever get into the “locked in” situation again!!
Same everywhere it appears. EDT totally useless and couldn’t give a damn. They tried the 136 thing over here as well. “You can talk him out of his house and then arrest him”. Told where to go.
When they refuse to come out, I specifically ask the name of the person I’m speaking to, putting particular emphasis on the request. Invariably I’m asked why. “So I can put you’re refusal to attend on the log, despite my specific request due to concerns about the vulnerability and mental health of the person….you can then explain in more detail at the enquirey”
Works most of the time. Amazing what a bit of personal responsibility can do.
The front-end Social Workers in Mental Health, have to perform an assessment on potential patients, and to this end seem to need to “label” people…because they are (in my experience) mostly bone idle, anyone with a drink or drugs problem is automatically labelled as such, and deemed not to be mentally ill at all.
It does not seem to cross their tiny minds that the drink or drugs problem may be a symptom, rather than the illness. It is sad that the flawed system they work with seems to encourage this kind of sloppy thinking.
I had to take someone to our local Mental Health Hospital. This place has got a specific 136 suite. The charge nurse was probably one of the most arrogant people I have ever come across. The way he talked to me was bad enough, but the total distain for the patient was unbelieveable. This particular person had no history of mental illness, but the nurse treated him as if he was an unloved 6 year old. It was a Thursday afternoon and the nurse told me that all the psychologists were at a conference. He didn’t like it when I pointed out that this was a 136 suite, intended for the assessment of mentally ill people. The fact that all the shrinks had gone on a jolly, wasn’t mine or the patients fault.
Eventually, I persuadewd him to accept the patient for assessment. I went to the station and my skipper saw me. He asked me if I’d been to the MHU. I told him I had. He swore, then apologised. He needed me to go back to speak to a nurse, who had been assaulted a couple of days ago. I went back. Who should the nurse be. Yep, Mr Nasty.
It was amazing how his attitude changed, once he realised I was there to do something for him.
I had great delight in cuffing the job, because the offender had severe learning difficulties. (It was only a minor assault).
I could not be a mental health nurse. It must require a great deal of compassion and tolerance.
Maybe my guy had just had a bad day.
Another issue we have with the mental health act, is that people who are quite obviously barking mad, are deemed ok, beacause they suffer from a personality disorder, which can be treated by a pill. They are then booted out onto the streets.
I’m not blaming the professionals in this case, just the stupid constraints of the system.
I got a call to a youngish woman with ‘Care in the Community’ issues who was intent on jumping out in the traffic. Her parents were on the scene but they could not control her. They gave me a run down of her mental history, she had been a voluntary patient at the local MH Hospital, wich ws a minute away from where we were. We put her in the back of the van and accompanied by the parents went straight to the MH Hospital and knocked the door. Mr Helpful answered saying ‘You have to take her to a place of safety’. I replied, ‘I just did’. Luckily I had the parents with me and Mr Helpful would have been responsible for their daughter being locked in a cell with no, nurse, doctor or treatment possibly for ages. In the end she was admitted as a voluntary patient, but that would not have happened if I was on my own. The Police should charge the NHS for looking after their patients and more often than not transporting them from custody to Hospital
This is a repeat innit?
Sadly, I can’t say I am surprised by this.
Yes it is a repeat posting; I’m on another pointless arse covering course about how not to trip over the carpet in the corridor or spill hot water from the kettle over myself at the moment.
my son is autistic and has adhd - he has a female friend the same age (13) with the same diagnosis who is, because there is nowhere else to place autistic children with a high iq, in a school for kids with emotional and behavioural difficulties. the school uses restraint, because some of the kids are very tough. yet for some reason the teachers were unable to contain this tiny 13 year old girl when she kicked off so they rang the police, who arrested her and took her to the nick, where she was stripped of her trousers (because they had a belt) and placed alone in a cell.
this is a county where the local autistic society (which i have been involved with for quite a while) has spent a fair bit of time raising awareness of how to deal with autistic arrestees, in the interests of both them and the arresting officers. my police colleagues in the custody suite were really helpful in giving us access to take photos for the leaflet and the force training officer was brilliant - putting a slot into training courses on the subject.
yet this little girl, had she not had a friend whose mum knows senior police officers and was able to raise the issue and shake things up a bit, would have ended up charged with assault on top of the nightmare of her arrest. all because the teachers who are paid to deal with her can’t be bothered, so they passed the buck to the folks in blue. the whole thing stinks.
Yes it is a repeat posting; I’m on another pointless arse covering course about how not to trip over the carpet in the corridor or spill hot water from the kettle over myself at the moment.
Ha Ha excellent, Ive been picking up empty cardboard boxes pretending they are actually very heavy today… ‘manual handling’… FFS!!
bobsdad - i’ve been doing almost the same bllody thing today, except i’m in the private sector (a law firm), and I’ve been *giving* the training. Believe me it’s MUCH worse giving it than taking it…. Felt like Gareth from The Office.
Just last might my sergeant and I had to make a quick grab for a suicidal male while one of our other colleagues kept him talking so he couldn’t see us approach from his blind side, drag him back over the parapet of the bridge, get him secured and in the back of my vehicle, then drive twenty miles to custody and get him booked in S.136. Went pretty much like clockwork, from our teamwork in grabbing him unawares before he could jump, getting him accepted into custody and bedded down for the night. But he is the exception. One thing I’m becoming increasingly pissed off with (and I mean **PISSED OFF!!!**) is some jobsworth saying “we can’t accept him, he’s got a personality disorder, not a mental illness”. Listen love, we just risked our lives to save his/hers, dragged him kicking and screaming here, after disarming him of course and currently have him restrained and in in a cell. Trust me, your analysis based on what paperwork you have on this person allowing social services to abrogate all responsibility for his welfare based on what is, let’s be clear, a technicality means the square root of precisely fuck all to me, this person needs help and needs it now. Care to help?
Where does it all go wrong? surely no one who enters in to a career as a mental health worker does so, so that they can stand in the way of people who need help getting it, do they? But I’ve read it on the police blogs and I’ve read in on the ambulance blogs, I’ve read it in my inbox and I’ve heard it across my kitchen table; more than anything theses incidents speak about our societies appalling attitude to mental health issues, It’s like some obscene game of pass the parcel.
Something is very wrong with the way this ’service’ is managed and if that were to be tackled, from the top, tomorrow (and it won’t be) it would still take a generation to resolve.
Thanks for posting this again Gadget, although it has made me feel just as angry as the first time I read it
Stinky: “It’s then down to EDT, who are just a uninterested, unreliable and uncompassionate. After about 5hrs a psychiatrist will turn up. He/she will wait about 30mins and phone EDT themselves to find out where the social workers are only to be told ‘they’ve just left the office’. ”
XTP:”I’d threatened to do it but I don’t think that he believed me.”
Notaspecialist:”Same everywhere it appears. EDT totally useless and couldn’t give a damn. They tried the 136 thing over here as well. “You can talk him out of his house and then arrest him”. Told where to go.”
madmax:”Another issue we have with the mental health act, is that people who are quite obviously barking mad, are deemed ok, beacause they suffer from a personality disorder, which can be treated by a pill. They are then booted out onto the streets.”
joker the lurcher:”so they passed the buck to the folks in blue. the whole thing stinks.”
uphilldowndale:”…It’s like some obscene game of pass the parcel.”
South Coast Copper:”One thing I’m becoming increasingly pissed off with (and I mean **PISSED OFF!!!**) is some jobsworth saying “we can’t accept him, he’s got a personality disorder, not a mental illness”. ”
I too have seen people who I’ve arrested totally for there own safety get a really sh*t service from the very people paid a public wage to help them.
After dealing with a mentally ill person I often have day-dream that I’ve arrested a social worker/EDT worker for some sort of ‘dereliction of duty’ offence. This is based on a, they have some sort of statutory duty based in law and b, providing the circumstances pass the necessity test a Police Constable may arrest for any offence.
If you can work out the offence committed by lazy inept social workers, then post an answer. I don’t mind being the OIC for the test case and hopefully you can read about it in the papers.
Nightjacks 4th rule of policing
“There is no situation so bad, so messed up, so utterly beyond recall that it can not be made worse by adding a social worker.” And mental health social workers?…….Don’t even go there…Its hardly worth making the phone call.
Its plainly not just your area that’s snafu IG. It is just as bad here. It boils down to the “convenient” reality that we have observation cells, physical force and native ability. We just aren’t part of the social services (no matter which way we are being led) but we will pitch in because that’s what we do, that’s how we are.
There is some truth in the old dictum “If you want a job doing look for a busy man.”
I suspect that part of the attitude problem stems from the fact that they are even more overstretched and underpaid than we are and there’s more of them that have stopped caring much about anything but the pay cheque.
Good post IG, I think I missed that one first time around.
NotASpecialist has the right idea with that trick. Works even better though if you can slip a even a minor variation such as a type 1 ’straw man’ fallacy into their position when repeating it back to them. It’s not lying, it’s all about interpretation of their position…
A short sentence full of hasty, apologetic backpedaling is usually the next thing out of their mouths, followed by complete compliance with your initial request…
Completely off-topic I know but what’s this…………a sensible decision from the CPS ??!!?? Shame on you, another lost detection opportunity. (Sorry for posting the whole article but my IT skills don’t extend to hyperlinking).
“A shopkeeper has said he is “relieved” he will not be prosecuted over the death of a mugger who tried to rob him.
Liam Kilroe, 25, from St Helens, Merseyside, died after grappling with Tony Singh on Birleywood Road, Skelmersdale, last week.
The mugger, who has previous convictions for assault and robbery, suffered a single fatal stab wound to the chest while Mr Singh, 34, tried to defend himself.
Police arrested Mr Singh, who owns the Lifestyle Express store in Birleywood, on suspicion of murder, but he was later released on bail and will not be charged over the incident.
John Dilworth, assistant district Crown prosecutor for South West Lancashire, said: “The evidence from the police has been reviewed and we have decided that Mr Singh, known locally to the community as Tony, was acting in self defence and should not be prosecuted for any offence over the death of Liam Kilroe.
“Mr Kilroe died as the result of a single stab wound to the chest. It is clear he was trying to rob Mr Singh of the day’s takings and that Mr Singh resisted and defended himself in the struggle that followed.”
Lancashire Police issued an appeal for Kilroe to hand himself in after he failed to appear in court to face armed robbery charges shortly before the attack.
Mr Singh said in a statement: “I would like to say how relieved I am at the decision that I am not going to be prosecuted for any offence.
“I tried to get away from the attacker but was left with no option but to defend myself.
“In the course of the attack I was stabbed to my head causing what could have been a life-threatening injury and also suffered repeated stab wounds to my back.
“In the struggle with my attacker I understand he suffered an injury but I do not know how the injury was caused.
“I do not want to be seen as a hero. I did no more or less than try to save my life.
“I extend my sympathy to the Kilroe family who after all have lost a son.”
good on the shopkeeper.
I am so glad to see he won’t be prosecuted.
Another scumbag bites the dust. He won’t be missed.
As for social workers, don’t get me started. I know there are good ones out there, but I never get to meet them. I get to meet the lazy and can’t do types who are not interested.
Rarely have I found that I am satisfied with the level of service given when I pitch up at a MH ward/hospital with a patient.
I really feel for those who help.
your take on this
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1307203,00.html
Ahmad Hayat… as the comments above yours say, I think its safe to say we’re all pretty happy that the shop keeper wasn’t prosecuted by the CPS. He was arrested at the scene because someone died and it had to be investigated.
The investigation showed (by the police recommending no further action to the CPS) that the shop keeper was not at fault and had acted legally in defending himself from attack, whether or not he remembers or actually used lethal force isn’t really the point.
He suffered several stab wounds himself and given that the robber died of a single stab wound it again shows that any one of the stabs that the shop keeper received in the fight could have been lethal. Therefore lethal force could very reasonably have been argued as necessary to prevent the shop keepers own death or further injury and thereby was permissibly in law.
common sense 1 shitbag 0
And for those people who might seek to criticise the Police officers for arresting him in the first place, two of the conditions of arrest I could easily see would be to preserve and secure evidence by means of questioning and seizing exhibits and also to protect and prevent injury to the suspect (ie from reprisal from family etc of dead guy)
Don’t forget that as investigators we have to seek to obtain all evidence whether that points towards innocence or guilt. The question of prosecution is all but in the hands of the CPS.
Had a new one from the assessment team in custody. They were called out and eventually attended (5hr wait) and told me yes he was ill and they had found a space for him. Excellent, I said, I’ll even arrange transport for him. Oh no, they said, its on a voluntary basis. Because he’s agreed he needs help, we can’t make him go. You can deal with him for the offences first.
What about if he changes his mind when we release him then? Oh well we can’t do anything about that.
Have far too many stories of dangerous and disturbed people here, for those with any kind of impression that care in the community is a roaring success:
http://policelockerroom.blogspot.com/search/label/mental%20health
This has all made interesting reading.
I’ve seen similar stuff. I work on the other side of that SocialWorker-Police fence, but I’m not a social worker - I wouldn’t be - it’s a thankless task and nowadays is circumscribed by the same government imposed kind of targets that you often write about here.
I offer no defence of lazy social workers any more than you do of lazy coppers.
There are clear definitions of what constitutes mental illness. If a person does not fulfill the criteria then social workers and mental health people won’t treat them, why waste precious resources on non-targetted procedures? It’s the same coin I read you on just the other day, Gadget, when you complained about coppers nicking kids for stupid crimes so as to meet targets.
An acquaintance of mine, who works in a mental institution has complained to me about police bringing drunks and junkies in who’ve learned that they can get a warm room and bed in a mental hospital by pretending illness and who then complain about the people there who’re genuinely mentally ill. They then discharge themselves when they’re ready to go out and get drunk/stoned again.
Like I said, I don’t want to defend lazy social workers, or lazy anyone else, but I think theres a danger of slipshod thinking around all these issues as everyone tries to blame everyone else for their problems.
By the way, I reckon yours is one of the best blogs, I read it with great interest.
Not just your manner Guv.
Happens here too.
We had a lady, very well educated and held down a decent job, mortgage paid for and such a nice woman.
However for whatever reason she became mentally ill, day by day I would see her or hear of a woman walking down the street to the shops from her house in her shoes, EVERY and I mean EVERY time we sectioned her, they deemed her not ill (enough).
It saddens me to say she died this month and even more so because I know now she won’t be suffering anymore because lame arsed Social Workers won’t be umming and Ahhing and giving the same excuses as to why they can’t accept her.
I’m just waiting for the next one now and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it
I notice that you said not ALL social workers boss, but my experience od them is pretty much the same. As, I imagine, a lot of other coppers experiences of trying to get social services to care.
It’s just as frustrating from the bench. On one occasion I had to threaten to witness summons the Chairman of a Mental Health Trust to get a poor bewildered man accepted into a unit after he had been a victim of pass-the-parcel for three weeks.
Seems to me the background to all this is badly underfunded and organised mental health services.
The government before this invented “Care in the Community” as a way of saving money, just as drug-fuelled mental illness was kicking off in earnest.
The present government have not restored the funding or the asylums, because they prefer to blow the cash on IT boondoggles, management consultants, and more and more regulatory and nannying regimes. More suits, fewer workers.
The mentally ill are, naturally, the people who fall through the cracks in any society, no matter how well organised. You, the cops, get to be the first to try and pull them out. If there is no back-up for you to call on, it is a waste of time, though of course you have to keep doing it.
You have my sympathy, even as I remember that the last time I had to use my fists was to defend myself against one of the more aggressive of the mentally ill.
IG this is heartbreaking, frustrating and a sort of ethical laziness that is becoming far too common. To the poster who said they can’t get someone after 4.30…doing well if they take your calls before then. My brother died of a serious mental illness. His death came after 3 successive days of him being passed around various ‘care’ units and on the 4th day in sheer desperation he ended his own suffering. Two coppers from the local clink who had been involved in his final days were generous and kind enough to personally visit the family and offer any assistance they could if we wished to take any action against the so-called mental health units involved. I was 15 at the time and resolved to become a psychologist- firstly so I could maybe find some understanding of certain illnesses and secondly - to be the sort of person my brother couldn’t’ find - kind, respectful, understanding and strong. Since moving to a rural area of England 2 years ago, I have met two colleagues who care….genuinely care…about the level of service they provide, the people they meet (not only those experience the illness, but their families and those around them). In the past 8 months however, I have become the only person on staff who is willing to go on calls after 2.30pm….and no thats not a misprint - the local coppers now simply call our number and ask for me by name, knowing full well that the only person they can get to attend is me……there are TWELVE other staff - all supposedly well qualified - who could be providing a much greater level of assistance. It is a disgrace! To those suggesting charging the social workers who do actually show up - my 2 cents is that it’s about time something like that happened! The damage such callous indifference does to the individual and the family, police, emt’s etc deserves the contempt shown here, but it also warrants stronger action than a steely eyed glare. I do what I do knowing full well what that indifference can cost someone. In my brothers case, it cost him his life.
Bystander - good for you!
Since we’re repeating ourselves I can tell an old joke again.
Two social workers walking down the road. They come across a bloke who’s been mugged, lying in a pool of claret, nose smashed. One says to the other; “Quick, we must get help for whoever did this!”
I made a funny mistake the other night. 3am, we needed EDT. I said to my PC, “Ring EDT, for them to say no, then at least we can log that we’ve tried before sorting it ourselves”. I hadn’t keyboard locked my mobile and the whole conversation was left on a friends voicemail. She happens to be NHS Director of Child Protection. She did chortle, being fully aware of EDTs uselessness.
Until recently I was in a relationship with a mental health crisis team nurse. I came to the conclusion that she and pretty much all her colleagues had boatloads of “issues” themselves. They were off sick more than they were at work (more than us cops), often with what they termed depression, but which I could guess was withdrawel after a weekend of recreational cocaine and ecstasy abuse. They “empathised”, but didn’t seem to be able to do much. I wonder if the whole treatment thing is an illusion created to justify the wholesale closure of secure mental health hospitals in the 80s and early 90s, when in fact very often, very little can be done for the poor victims of these illnesses.
I had a similar situation today, 14 yr old kid in custody, his 4th arrest. For some reason his parents decide to disown him and despit my best persuasion wont have him back at home. Now there is no good reason to refuse him bail except i cant just toss a 14yr old out on the streets can i???
well according to the two most useless uncaring and completely incompentent social workers i dealt with it is not their problem and the polices responsibility to find homes for kids!!!!
Didnt even get a response when i said , right we will bail him to court then as soon as he leaves the nick we will take him into police protection as he is likey to suffer significant harm if he is left wandering the streets! Then you as social workers will have to do something!
Wallywombat - I have signed up a ppo in those circumstances and then the social workers simply take hours and hours to take responsibility for the kid!! It all adds to the burden for us. How bloody frustrating and it seems they will just keep getting away with it. I have even had them advise we use the cells when I have shown concern at how long they take!!
Everything seems fine in the ideological world of the monday to friday 9 to 5 brigade who talk the talk and try to convince everyone that things are OK. Their chosen words, phrases and meaningless statements hold water within their inner sanctum meetings.
Take one step from this cosy utopia, where talk and meetings hold the balance of power, into reality street where these acclaimed resources do not seem to exist and are not easily obtainable outside of the pre-requisite hours then you might just have stepped into another dimension.
Sadly the social and psychiatric support network are the tip of a very large iceburg. The policy makers hide behind a faceless mask where the claimed support does not exist in any meaningful and reactive way. Small sticking plasters are used as a token effort in a system where both wrists are cut and both the support expertise from those who care about what they do as well as the complete under resourcing provide a wholly inadequate provision. For too many people it simply will not work and the support is non existant. Couple this with the people who hide behind policies and appear to be obstructive and evasive then any good ones get lumped under the same flag as those who don’t or can’t be arsed to give a damn. This is a shame as not all are lazy or bad.
This is echoed throughout the support service and public service network. Ask anyone who has had a relative let down by this system the next time a director or business manager of one of these areas is spouting off in the media about how much they are doing.
Tick the boxes, hit the targets, promote the brand, everything will be alright if you sit in the dark and close all the windows. That way reality remains outside, in the real world.
whichendbites - big hard accurate punches my friend
I cared today, i really did, the kid wasnt really a bad kid but if he ended up in a family group home the rest of the residents would have dragged him down to their level. his brief understood me when i told him my concerns. i wanted what was best for this kid, i have no kids myself but i wanted to get him sorted out. my job is to lock up criminals. why did i care and the people who where meant to care not?
if he ended up in a fgh i feel that will be it for him, he will be sucked into their way of life and that will be it for him as a valuable member of society. somebody could have made a difference today (not me) sadly their tea and weekend off was more important!
i despair!
Whichendbites: Nail on head has been hit!!!
Sad but true
It may have been posted twice, (I didn’t see it first time around) but it doesn’t remove the validity of the post.
Social Services are in the main (especially with regard to EDT) a complete bunch of wasters, whose sole reason for being seems to be how many times can they say “it’s nothing to do with us”.
Even the people they are supposed to help ring the Police because they know that at least we’ll respond and TRY to achieve something.
James:
”Either you are totally weak, ineffectual and effeminate, that writing such gushing Mills and Boon prose comes very naturally to you ( granted you do tend to simper a lot)
or
a totally cynical piece of “writing” from someone keen to do his own Monday Books deal - but unfortunately so devoid of original ideas that he has to post it twice… and hope that nobody notices”
Surely thats an arrestable offence you have just comitted there, naughty.
James
If you don’t like it, fuck off.
James love, calm down love I was having a joke! I aint a copper either but if they are wearing panties that go right up to there waists I may consider joining!
I work in two large “units” where we almost daily welcome the broken, the addict, and the mentally ill to join us and give them beds and meals and health care and addiction counselling and education and work experience and moral support (my bit).
The public know them as prisons (and I’m the chaplain).
I’ve really enjoyed reading this debate, y’all. I do like folk who give a damn.
Your social services story brings to mind an incident while I was in probation. We went to an elderly lady who had gone missing from her hospital ward. She had gone home and wouldn’t come out - “I’m only talking to the police. I’m not talking to those bloody social workers”
She was a respectable lady in her late 80s. She seemed perfectly safe in her house.
What could you possibly imagine that social services wanted us to do with a frail old lady who had just had a hip transplant ? Trick her into coming outside so we could detain her 136 then….. take her into the cells for the night. I couldn’t believe my ears and said “are you having a laugh ? I’m not putting a 80 year old lady with a dodgy hip in a police cell for the night and the custody sergeant wouldn’t have it if I did” The response from the social worker was
“it might get the process speeded up”.
Anyway, I refused to detain her as she was not a danger to herself or anyone else and after a stand off with the social service harridans got the stand down from our inspector.
Little frail old lady with a bit of a wandering mind, you would think people employed in the social work field might want to do their best for her wouldn’t you. But no. This incident left me with absolutely no respect at all whatsoever for “adult protection teams” or social services.