Police Scotland, East Lothian Substance Use Service and Justice Social Work Team's joint initiative is assisting more vulnerable individuals to access support services.
Keeping people safe from harm, early intervention and prevention, and reducing health inequalities are three of East Lothian Integration Joint Board’s key strategic priorities to support residents to live healthy, independent lives.
An established partnership initiative between East Lothian’s Substance Use Service, Justice Social Work and Police Scotland to reduce drug and alcohol harm aims on deliver on each of these objectives.
Police Scotland’s ‘Vulnerable People’s Database’ (VPD), within its Risk and Concern Hub, acts as a means of identifying and tracking individuals who come into contact with Police Officers, where incidents are related to mental health calls, drug related enforcement, or when instances of criminality (e.g. shoplifting) are linked to addiction.
Thanks to advances in technology and data sharing opportunities, a new pathway has been established to flag and refer identified vulnerable individuals from the Police database into the East Lothian Substance Use Services without their explicit consent.
As well as supporting people from harm, this early intervention and prevention initiative aims to actively encourage vulnerable adults to engage in substance use and/or mental health services to reduce the growing number of drug and alcohol related deaths in East Lothian.
The initiative marked a significant shift towards proactive collaboration and assertive interventions to support known individuals to address the root causes of their offending.
While this partnership has been established for some time, the results of the newly introduced intervention pathways via the VPD into East Lothian’s Substance Use Service are now starting to be recognised.
Chief Inspector Ben Leathes, East Lothian Area Commander commented, “We’ve really pleased with the progress and success this partnership and referral pathway is delivering. Our joint case studies have proven that when an identified vulnerable individual is willing to engage with support services, there is a decrease in police engagement and repeat behaviour; be that in criminal offences, or incidents of self-harm which have required police involvement. This is a really positive step for both the individual involved and the wider community.”
Fiona Wilson, Chief Officer of East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership adds, “This initiative really goes to show the benefits of integrated partnership working. We’re really encouraged by the commitment involved by each of the partner agencies to drive this initiative forward, and equally pleased that identified individuals have come forward and accessed services, enabling them to make positive changes, and subsequently reduce some of the health inequalities they may have faced.”
Following the positive results from this East Lothian trial, the Area Commander is now approaching Police Scotland with a proposal to expand this drug and alcohol harm reduction initiative across all territorial divisions in Scotland through its equality driven strategy, Policing Together.