S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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Permanency of police officer numbers, combined with relative small populations in remote communities, combined with previous interactions, facilitates police knowing who the mental health patients are residing in the community: But we’re [Police] generally aware of the types of people [mental health patients] that they’re [remote nurses] dealing with and specific people in community. (T21, p. 7) A second conjuncture between remote nurses and police officers in the delivery of mental healthcare, arises from remote nurse requests for police assistance/protection. The requests for assistance are again many and varied, but primarily revolve around issues of safety. Two remote police officer participants stated: It’s usually due to security reasons, if the nurses feel—obviously have concerns for their own personal safety or the safety of others, then they’ll get us involved. [T21, p. 6] If they’re aware of a problem, we’ll go out with them. We’ll attend jobs with them. [T25, p. 6] Police officer assistance may be requested when a mental health patient is violent or aggressive and remote nurses have not been able to de-escalate the situation, or sedative medication has not resolved the behaviours: We’re [police officers] obliged to stay there for the duration of the [mental health] consultation, basically. [T21, p. 8] Requests for assistance in these situations are frequently a result of presentations at night and after hours, when the remote nurse individually responds to a ‘call out’. Another regular activity involving issues of safety is when a remote nurse needs to attend a mental