I am a police sergeant in the Devon and Cornwall Police and have been based at Liskeard, Cornwall since 2007. My role there is all about safeguarding the vulnerable, crime prevention, dealing with anti social behaviour, community engagement and problem solving policing (PSP). This last skill is how I came to be involved with Honey. PSP looks at the root causes of a persistent problem causing undue demand on police resources and brings whoever is necessary together to try to solve that problem. At the end of 2008, despite the issue not being in my geographic patch, I was asked to investigate the problems caused to the police by Honey who was at that time the single most resource hungry person in the whole of South East Cornwall. I started digging and what I found out was rather surprising. Honey was then under the treatment of the mental health team who were 'treating' her but the treatments were making no difference and her frustration, distress and anguish meant she was behaving very erratically, including multiple self harm events, some serious. It was clear that whatever was going on with the mental health services, it was not helping her situation and in fact seemed to be making things worse. Having met Honey, I realised there was something unusual going on. By mapping the events it also showed that she only came to police notice at certain times of the month, she was clearly cyclical and this could present another possible explanation - hormones. Honey had just been referred to Dr Gray, a specialist GP in Cornwall who treats women with hormonal dysfunctions. She had to fight to get this referral. With Honey's permission I spoke to Dr Gray about the police experience of her and treatment started to have positive effects almost immediately. The response of mental health professionals to this new treatment was disbelief and cynicism. They had no conception that hormones could cause such extreme behaviour in women. It was obvious that Honey was not mentally ill despite presenting with all the apparent symptoms of it before Dr Gray realised what was really going on. It raised the question about how many other women were in the mental health system because their hormones were out of control. Honey continued to improve and was able to stop self harming and was no longer coming to police notice. However, I maintained contact through personal interest, a desire to help and the fact that occasional contact direct with me helped Honey stay stable. After years of various treatments, Honey now understood what her body was doing to her and was now well enough to think ahead and of others. With her mum she decided to set up a charity with the aim of helping other women suffering as she had suffered, to offer support, guidance and coping mechanisms. Get your Life Back was born! Having been involved all these years it seemed like a natural progression to become a Trustee for this charity to help spread the word and ultimately not only to help individual women, but also to when we have sufficient evidence, to educate the health service about the issues so many women contacting the charity are suffering and also to prevent women with a treatable medical issue being 'treated' for mental health issues.

 

SGT Jo Williams