Knowledge about head injury in police custody staff and implications for training

Abstract

Head injury is prevalent in prisoners and is associated with offending behaviour. Awareness and assessment of the occurrence and effects of recent head injury is important and should occur at an early stage in the criminal justice system. This study looks at knowledge about detainees with a recent head injury in police custody and considers the implications for training of custody officers.

Questionnaires about perceived training needs and knowledge about head injury were completed by 67 custody officers in Scotland. All officers reported a need for further training about head injury and the most common areas of need were perceived to be assessment, early management and long term effects. Knowledge and past training seemed to be more focussed on awareness of potentially catastrophic brain injury and a limited understanding of impairment of insight and of emotional and behavioural effects was evident.

There is a need for routine training about recent effects of head injury for custody officers to include the effects on insight, emotional and behavioural effects in detainees in addition to training on catastrophic outcomes which tends to be the main focus of current practice.