Accessible summaryWhat is known about the subject?
People experiencing mental distress have a high rate of contact with police in community crisis events.
Police use a continuum of responses when managing situations involving agitation, aggression and behavioural problems.
People experiencing mental distress have been subjected to Tasers as part of the police response.
Following a number of deaths and numerous reports of injuries, concerns have been raised about the safety of Tasers.
What this paper adds?
Police use of Tasers in mental health crises is relatively common.
Tasers are used in a range of settings including public places, private residences and healthcare facilities.
People experiencing mental distress may be subjected to more use of Tasers than the general population.
What are the implications for practice?
Mental health professionals need to work with police towards greater understanding of the needs of people experiencing mental distress and to promote the use of non‐coercive interventions in mental health crisis events.
Mental health researchers need to explore the qualitative experiences of people who are Tasered, to provide an evidence base for Taser use with people experiencing mental distress.
AbstractIntroductionConducted electrical weapons, or “Tasers,” are currently used by over 15,000 law enforcement and military agencies worldwide. There are concerns regarding the effectiveness, potential for harm and overuse with people experiencing mental distress.AimTo explore the literature about police use of Tasers with people experiencing mental distress.MethodAn integrative review was undertaken, and qualitative and quantitative analytical approaches were used.ResultsThirty‐one studies were included. Of all recorded usage, overall prevalence of Taser use on people experiencing mental distress was 28%. This population appears to experience higher Taser usage than the general population.DiscussionThere are substantial gaps in the research literature particularly with respect to the decision‐making processes involved in deploying Tasers on this population and the physical and psychological consequences of Taser use in this context.Implications for practicePolice use of Tasers in mental health crises is relatively common and occurs in a variety of environments including mental health settings. Mental health professionals need to work with police towards greater understanding of the needs of people with mental illness and to promote the use of non‐coercive interventions in mental health crisis events.
This article provides a critique of The Fairness Project, a learning and teaching project on equality and diversity in the legal profession and its impact on employability, delivered over three years across three university law schools. The Fairness Project builds on current literature on lack of equality and diversity in the legal profession, by adopting a student perspective. Barriers to entry and progression within the legal profession occur because of a range of issues including social class, gender, ethnicity, initial education, university education and gaining work experience in a law firm. We explore whether, and to what extent, we can educate law students from a range of diverse backgrounds and social identities about the 'diversity barriers' entrenched in the legal profession, and thus influence their own career trajectories to access the profession. Our results show thatat least to some extentwe can. The data suggests that The Fairness Project helped prepare law students to tackle the inequalities that exist in the legal profession. The learning benefits of The Fairness Project are transferable to other law schools and could be adapted for use with law students in other jurisdictions, or for students in other disciplines where 'diversity barriers' may exist.
This article reports on the effectiveness of an Early Intervention Pilot (EIP) with year 1 law students in Lancashire Law School, UCLan in 2018-19. The initiative was designed to address concerns over attendance and attainment identified in a previous School project. The EIP used non-attendance thresholds to trigger early intervention student meetings with Course Leaders to explore reasons for absence and to offer appropriate advice and signposting. Quantitative analysis of EIP data reveals improvements in both attendance and attainment for the cohort when compared with an earlier cohort. Additional findings reveal benefits in early identification of significant numbers of students with a range of needs, allowing for more effective signposting to sources of support during their first semester. This article contributes to the literature in exploring the impact of an early intervention approach within a law school context and in revealing the scale and depth of complex student needs.
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