The Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust (BDCFT) Police Liaison Service (PLS) is an important part of our First Response Service (FRS). It aspires to offer a fair access to mental health services for those individuals in police custody. It consists of 3 Registered Mental Health Nurses (RMN), they are also referred to as Criminal Justice Nurses (CJN), and are based at Trafalgar house Custody suite covering office hours.
The service offers 3 broad functions:
1) Urgent Mental Health assessments within the custody suite, which sign post to appropriate follow up where needed. This includes communicating with and linking detainees into existing support packages such as the Community Mental Health Teams.
2) One of the staff members provide a Crown Court Liaison service. Whom provides assessment, reports and link for Crown court with Magistrates court.
3) The screening of detainees for serious or enduring mental health conditions. That are potentially suitable for the West Yorkshire Liaison and Diversion service.
The Registered Mental Health Nurses provide the West Yorkshire Liaison and Diversion service with information where it relates to risk, and a means to safely screen potential service users, into appropriate statutory services. There is a supportive and advice element to their function, which is fostered by good communication and working relations between the teams.
Outside of office hours the central First Response Service are based at Lynfield Mount Hospital. To provide function 1) above via a call out service from the Police to First Response Service.