Policing and public health: Exploring new ways to unlock the social cure

警察的行动不成比例地针对社会边缘人群。虽然许多群体可能成为警察关注的对象，但这项研究的重点将放在与警察互动的心理健康状况不佳的人身上，如受害者、证人和罪犯。根据目前的估计，近年来与心理健康相关的需求有所上升，警察现在花费高达40%的时间在某种程度上与有心理健康问题的人打交道。警察通常是“最后的服务”，并且一直参与各种形式的心理健康危机。更广泛地说，贫穷、不健康和犯罪之间的联系意味着，那些与警察打交道的人——无论出于何种原因——都不成比例地有可能遭受各种各样的精神（和身体）疾病。但是，在财政紧缩的推动下，对医疗和其他服务的削减在很多情况下使警察成为第一求助服务，是唯一可以响应困境中人们求助的机构。然而，对于警察活动是加剧还是减轻了警察遇到的人所面临的心理健康问题，人们知之甚少。此外，警察活动如何影响心理健康问题的社会和地理分布几乎没有得到考虑。人们对警察遭遇如何影响幸福感知之甚少，尤其是在英国。该项目将通过调查警务对人们心理健康的影响方式，解决目前对警察与公众互动理解中的这一重要差距。利用社会认同健康方法、群体间关系理论和程序正义理论（PJT），本研究的三个目标是：(a)调查在人们面临更多心理健康问题的地区，警察活动是否以及为什么更高；(b)与客户团体和警方合作，了解警方如何回应人们提出的各种心理健康问题，以及此后的过程如何；(c)纳入干预措施的设计，重点是帮助警方管理他们与有精神健康问题的人的互动，并帮助他们减少这一群体中的再次犯罪。最终，该项目的最终目标是减轻警务对那些与警察有高度接触的人的有害后果，并通过这样做改善他们的心理健康。拟议的项目将采取多种方法，涉及定量和定性两方面的工作，分为三个工作方案，反映三个项目目标。通过开展这些工作项目，该项目将促进对警察遭遇影响心理健康不良者和“难以接触”群体福祉的过程的理论理解；理论知识将为一系列不同的利益相关者提供应用效益，包括警务学院，大都会警察局（MPS；以及英国和海外的其他警察部队），市长警务和犯罪办公室（MOPAC）和英国卫生安全局（UKHSA）。

Police activity is disproportionately directed towards people on the margins of society. While many groups of people are likely to become the objects of police attention, the focus of this research will be on people with poor mental health who interact with police, as victims, witnesses, and offenders. On current estimates there has been a rise in mental-health related demand in recent years, and police now spend up to 40% of their time dealing, in some way, with people with mental health problems. Police are often the 'service of last resort', and have always been involved with people in various forms of mental health crisis. More broadly, the links between poverty, ill-health and crime mean that those who interact with officers - for whatever reason - are disproportionately likely to suffer from a wide range of mental (and physical) conditions. But austerity-driven cuts to health and other services have in many cases left police as a service of first resort, the only agency available to respond to calls for help from people in distress. Yet, little is known about whether police activity exacerbates or alleviates the mental health problems faced by the people that officers encounter. Moreover, how police activity affects the social and geographic spread of mental health problems has barely been considered. Little is known about how police encounters influence well-being, particularly in the UK. This project will address this important gap in current understanding of police-public interactions by investigating the ways that policing can affect people's mental health. Drawing upon the social identity approach to health, theories of intergroup relations, and procedural justice theory (PJT), the three objectives of the research are (a) to investigate whether and why police activity is higher in areas where people face more mental health problems; (b) to work with client groups and the police to find out how the police respond to people's various mental health presentations and what the journey thereafter looks like; and (c) to feed into the design of an intervention that will focus on helping the police manage the interactions they have with people experiencing mental health problems and help them to reduce re-offending amongst this group. Ultimately, the end goal of the project is to mitigate harmful consequences of policing for - and by doing so, improve the mental well-being of - people who have high levels of contact with police.The proposed project will take a multi-methods approach and involve both quantitative and qualitative strands of work, packaged into three work programs reflecting the three project objectives. By undertaking these WPs, the project will advance theoretical understanding of the processes through which police encounters influence well-being among those with poor mental health and 'difficult to reach' groups; theoretical knowledge that will provide applied benefit for a range of different stakeholders including the College of Policing, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS; and other police forces in the UK and overseas), the Mayor's Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC), and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).