Drunken detainees in police custody: is brief intervention by the forensic medical examiner feasible?

Abstract

English ‘Health of the Nation’ targets to reduce the proportion of adults consuming alcohol above the recommended ‘sensible’ guidelines are not being met and alternative methods of reaching the target population need to be explored. This paper examines the feasibility of forensic medical examiners (FMEs) expanding their role to include the routine detection of problem drinking by detainees in police custody. The study identified the considerable extent of contact of the FME with potential problem drinkers. The FMEs in this study are not averse to the detection of alcohol misuse; the majority feel trained to offer advice and to care for the drunken detainee, despite their awareness of the difficulty in getting such detainees to take advice seriously. Ultimately, the police custody suite, like the general hospital, the accident and emergency department or the general practitioner's surgery, offers a setting in which there is great scope for early identification and brief intervention with a ‘Health of the Nation’ target group whom doctors have failed to have an impact on. Copyright © 1998 Whurr Publishers Ltd.