Essex Health & Justice Service

The Essex Health & Justice Service provide a service for people aged 10 years and over who are in the criminal justice system and have been identified as having mental health problems, learning disabilities or difficulties, cognitive disorder, substance misuse and other vulnerabilities. This extends to police stations, the courts, prisons and the probation service.

The teams provide a comprehensive service including:

• screening people within the criminal justice system at the earliest opportunity and ensuring that their needs are met in the best setting, be it hospital, community or custody;
• providing one point of access for criminal justice agencies to request information and advice, or assessment of people who appear to present symptoms of mental health or have a history of mental health problems;
• act as a conduit for individuals who are due for release from prison to ensure appropriate referral on to mental health services;
• attending multi-agency public protection meetings to assist in the management of complex cases;
• provide training on mental health to criminal justice agencies;
• provide information to offender managers to inform pre- sentence reports and enable appropriate disposals from court.

The service works in collaboration with CRG Medical, Phoenix Futures and other professionals to support vulnerable people, including children and young people, at points of contact within the criminal justice system. It incorporates the Street Triage service, Force Medical Examiner (FME) service and Liaison & Diversion service.

Street Triage Service

Based at the Police Control Centre in Chelmsford, the Community psychiatric nurses (CPN) work with designated police officers (experienced in mental health issues) to work across the county answering calls where there is concerns regarding clients presentation in the community that may be in crisis situations.

Force Medial Examiner (FME) Service

Run by CRG medical and operates 24 hours a day in the police custody setting, dealing with physical health screenings and vulnerabilities screenings for the Liaison & Diversion service.

The Health Care Professionals (HCP) are embedded into 5 police custody suites in Essex (Basildon, Chelmsford, Grays, Harlow & Southend) offering service to Colchester & Clacton on a call out service.

The FME Doctor is available 24 hours a day daily to respond to more urgent issues.

Phoenix Futures

They work alongside the HCP’s and deal with clients in custody that need assistance with substance misuse, social problems & lower level mental health problems.

The service help clients with vulnerabilities to engage with other services, and will assist at appointments and travel arrangements to attend these.

EPUT Community psychiatric nurses (CPN's)

Work in the Magistrates courts to screen clients in the custody setting for vulnerabilities and mental health & learning disability problems.

• work alongside the probation service and solicitors
• will write reports for clients in court to assist with the most appropriate outcomes for them
• liaise with prison establishments to highlight any risks or concerns regarding clients entering the custodial setting

Specialist Community psychiatric nurses (CPN's)

Offer specialist assessments in mental health & learning disabilities for youths & adults. They will be based across the county and will be located in the south, mid/west and eastern localities.

Their role will be to carry out specialist assessments with the aim of referring clients into the appropriate mental health/learning disabilities services across the county liaising with secondary mental health services community & inpatient, GP’s IAPT services, EWBMHS, Full Circle & Futures in Mind.

Where service is based

The services main office is based at the C & E Centre, Chelmsford although the staff work out of all the Magistrates Courts and custody suites in Essex Police localities.

Referrals can be made by the Crown Prosecution Service, inpatient services, primary and secondary care services, the police, prison, probation and court, social services, solicitors, voluntary agencies and youth offending teams.