Post Katie's Night in a Custody Cell

As the door closed and I lay on my plastic mattress for night there was just the continuous hum of the heating and my thoughts to keep me company.  Whilst, to start with, I enjoyed the quiet contemplation that the cell gave me I quickly realised that it is a lonely place.  Made worse when there is hustle and talking which isn’t quite clear enough to make out, but reminds you that you are isolated from the world.  

WOW these feeling must be terrifying for a young person who is going through a mental health crisis.  The fact of not being in a cell, but a hospital won't make those feelings disappear.  This issue is clearly not with custody cells, but ensuring no child is forced to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest appropriate bed.  As this means the support of their friends and family won’t be seen by them and these feeling of having to deal with everything alone will persist.

As I write, I am alone in my cell, it should be pointed out that the truth is far from this.  I had amazing custody staff whose sole purpose was to ensure my safety.  Given a clean, safe location they catered for my basic needs including two meals and that all important cup of tea. They checked on me to ensure my safety and if required would have done this more regularly.  Cells are not the place for anyone who is in a mental health crisis, but if they did have to be used in an emergency, it's safe to say that Durham Custody Suites (and I am sure the rest around the UK) would do their best to ensure the safety and mental welfare of the individual.

So what have I learnt from my Night in the Cells?

Custody staff are great, as I am sure is the NHS, however, they can not do it alone.  It is up to us as a community to help break down the stigma surrounding mental health.  We need to let everyone know that they are not alone and it is OK to talk about mental health and seek help from early intervention services.  

What can you do to help?

• Break the stigma by talking about mental health.  
• Tell parents about the services YoungMinds offer to support them if their child ever has or is going through a mental health crisis
• If you can donate to YoungMinds and help them to continue their great work

Thanks to PCC Ron Hogg for his support and Durham Constabulary for allowing us to raise awareness for this important cause by ‘locking me up’ #NightintheCells, an experience I never want to repeat.

Why Katie is putting herself into a custody cell for the night

We (the Fast Dreamers) have been challenged to raise money, and more importantly, awareness of a charity of our choosing.  When YoungMinds was mentioned I had never heard of it before.  I was shocked to discover that 850,000 children in the UK have mental health problems.  With the huge stigma still around mental health this can mean that children and young people don’t get the support they need.

Sadly children in crisis can often be placed into a police cell, there is currently a bill going through parliament which will hopefully stop this happening but we’re not there yet.  So our team decided it would do a ‘Night in the Cells’ to raise awareness of this issue and the work YoungMinds does.  To this end we got in touch with Durham Constabulary as it is renowned for its community focus and hasn’t had a young person in a crisis placed in a police cell since April 2014.

As expected Durham Constabulary have been supportive of the idea and we are working with them and PCC Ron Hogg to raise awareness of this issue.  So on the 21st December at 2100 the door will close on my cell.  You can follow this experience on Twitter and please share away.  It is important to get as many people as possible talking openly about this problem to raise awareness and promote understanding.

If you feel able to sponsor us for this event please give to our Virgin Giving Page where all the money will go direct to YoungMinds to raise funds to better children’s mental health services.  Preventing those young people who are going through a mental health crisis is just one important step.  They also shouldn’t be placed onto adult psychiatric wards or forced to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest bed and away from the friends and family that can offer support.  They urgently need the early intervention service to be improved and the right help if they do reach crisis point which is where Young Minds can help.

Welcome to the Fast Dreamer's Blog!

Welcome to the Fast Dreamers blog, nice of you to join us! You may be wondering what it is we’re doing? Who we are? Why? How? What? The mystery will be unravelled below…

So what are we doing you ask? Well, we are raising money for the charity YoungMinds, a fantastic bunch of people who are working hard to improve the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. A lot of their work goes into empowering Young People, involving them in the charity work and allowing their voices and experiences to direct the help the charity gives out.

But wait, there’s more! YoungMinds also provide support to parents and carers, provide expert training and resources to professionals, and make mental health information more accessible for everyone. But don’t just take it from us, you can read all about their work here.

So who are we? We are the Fast Dreamers! Or more specifically: Anna, Duncan, Robyn, Sean, Katie, Jacob, Helen, Dominic, Ingrid and Olivia; a group of grads from across government who’ve come together to help other young people by raising some money, and honking the horn for YoungMinds.

We dream fast, we dream big, and now we invite you to dream with us… We’ll be posting all sorts about our antics coming up in the future to raise money for young minds. From the weird to the wonderful and all of the in-between, you can hear right here about how we are fundraising for YoungMinds, and of course, you can donate.

No donation is too big or small, and every bit you can contribute will not only make us feel better about the gruelling challenges ahead, but it will really help make a difference in lives of young people.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog, we hope you stick around for the ride!

The Fast Dreamers:

Anna, Dominic, Duncan, Helen, Ingrid, Robyn, Jacob, Katie, Olivia & Sean.