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How would you expect the emergency services to react to a suicide attempt?
SirMickTravis
Posts: 2,607 Forum Member
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This has nothing to do with Robin Williams and is purely coincidental. My assumption was that if someone made a suicide attempt then the normal thing would be to call an ambulance. I know someone who was in this situation and my assumption would be that they would be taken to hospital. I was surprised to hear the police were involved and the story shocked me. I can't say too much in public but I wondered if anyone had known of a similar situation.
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Another reason for the police to attend might be to remove any suspicion of foul play?
But for a suicide attempt the police will always be called out too
Not a normal situation though in any sense of the word, so anything is possible. Hope your friend is ok and comes out of it in a better situation and is able to live the rest of his or her life in happiness.
No it isn't.
I have no idea how the police would react.
It's only an offence to actually COMMIT suicide. For obvious reasons, there has never been a prosecution!
After some time the traffic was building up and causing road mayhem with diversions and the emergency services were getting fed up with the guy who kept on saying he was going to jump and ignoring all their efforts to help him.
I'm told that they started throwing salted peanuts at him and telling him to jump and eventually he did, and then they were pissed off because instead of falling cleanly into the river he hit part of the bridge work on the way down and made quite a mess.
Yes, an officer has to be in attendance along with a Dr.
This. The paramedics will take a patient to hospital, but I believe the police are the ones trained to notify next of kin and look after anybody else affected. This was certainly the case when my MIL (successfully) attempted suicide. The police looked after her son and daughter until their elder siblings could arrive to take care of them, and they came to my husband's workplace to break the news to him. Obviously medical staff can't do this.
There is still this assumption that MH issues = violence, which maybe the case is some desperate situations, but not always.
I've spent many a weekend in the cells having committed no criminal offence but detained under section 136 and waiting for Doctors, social workers, appropriate adults etc. (who usually just say 'well you look alright' and send you home alone!).
Some emergency service personnel are very sympathetic, but you still get the odd few who make you feel like you are wasting their time and make insensitive remarks, paramedics can be worse than police sometimes IME.
No, it's not any more.
It was about 100 years ago I think but it hasn't been a criminal offence for quite some time.
On the OP's question I'd expect the police to turn up for anybody that was potentially unstable and that may need sectioning.
Paramedics can hardly section (and potentially restrain) somebody by themselves.
You're wrong.
Unfortunately, what should happen does not always happen and despite the police admitting at times that someone is at risk or suicidal they do not always take action if they think they can palm the responsibility off onto other professionals (who cant actually section or remove for their own safety)
The police have powers under section 136 of the Mental Health Act to arrest someone who is in a public place and take them to a place of safety. If healthcare professionals think someone may need to be admitted to hospital under the MHA and can't access a property to carry out an assessment then an application can be made to a Magistrate for a warrant to effect entry into a person's home so a mental health assessment can be carried out. This is under section 135 MHA.
It sounds a bit disingenuous to say police palm off responsibility in what is essentially a clinical matter. Also suggesting that using section 136 is what should happen sounds totally inappropriate.
The MHA Code of Practice states the following about section 136:
10.14 The purpose of removing a person to a place of safety in these circumstances is only to enable the person to be examined by a doctor and interviewed by an AMHP, so that the necessary arrangements can be made for
the person’s care and treatment. It is not a substitute for an application for detention under the Act, even if it is thought that the person will need to be detained in hospital only for a short time. It is also not intended to substitute for or affect the use of other police powers.
It is not the responsibility of the Police to take action, unless the person is in a public place, and there is an immediate risk to their health, or anyone else's.
Their responsibility is to then take them to a place of safety, where it is for medical professionals to deal with them.
I know exactly what their powers are and when they should be used. When someone is threatening suicide and is a danger to themselves and others and need to be examined, that is no time to say that they have a foster carer who can take them to A+E when the person does not want to be taken to A+E. We have that a lot.
Thats exactly right and that frequently doesnt happen.
Are you able to say who 'we' are?
Social Services
Around 12 years ago at my old office, a chap prepared a noose and threatened to hang himself at the nearby multi-storey car park. Caused absolute chaos.
Once the crowd were suitably annoyed at being delayed and thinking of their parking fees racking up a few started shouting "jump" - the police swiftly threatened to arrest anyone who they spotted enticing him to jump.
Are you an AMHP?