Award for innovative mental health-policing model

QFMHU Director Ed Heffernan(second from right) and Inspector Paul McQuaid (second from left) receive the Customer Focus – Silver Award on behalf of the PCC MHL team from Assistant Commissioner Paul Stewart (left) and Police Commissioner Ian Stewart.

The outstanding work being done by the Police Communications Centre Mental Health Liaison Service has been recognised with a Silver Award for Customer Focus at the 2016 Queensland Police Service (QPS) Awards for Excellence.

The PCC MHL service is a joint initiative between QPS and the Queensland Forensic Mental Health (QFMHU) Unit, which operates through the Community Forensic Outreach Service at Metro North Mental Health.

QFMHU Director Ed Heffernan said the service is a collaborative mental health-policing initiative that operates across the Queensland Forensic Mental Health Service (QFMHS) and the QPS to provide direct mental health assistance to police when responding to crisis situations.

“This is a fantastic effort and reflects extremely well on the positive collaboration between the QPS and mental health services,” Dr Heffernan said.

“The service has been recognised nationally as an innovative mental health-policing model. “

This is the second mental health police award received by the service. Last year, the Queensland Fixated Threat Assessment Centre won a Gold Award for Fostering Innovation.

The QPS Awards for Excellence acknowledge and reward individuals and teams for innovative, creative and outstanding initiatives, projects or systems that have been implemented across the State.