LDN London helped Matthew by working innovatively with the local police.
Matthew lives in one of our supported living houses in Kentish Town. He has had a problem with making nuisance 999 phone calls to the police for several years. This is linked to his learning disabilities, mental health and trauma from when he was younger, and the calls were a way of coping when he felt sad or anxious.
Matthew regularly made dozens of 999 calls in a day, which could add up to over a hundred in a month. This led to him being prosecuted a few years ago, so the support team at LDN London knew they had to work with him to change his behaviour.
They supported Matthew to speak to the local police and learn more about how his actions were affecting people. Our passionate and enthusiastic team worked closely with the local police and together they used their knowledge of Matthew and his love of art to come up with an idea.
With the team’s support, Kentish Town Police created a small gallery to show Matthew’s artwork in their station. He has displayed a few of his paintings and received a positive response to his art from the team there. Almost immediately Matthew stopped making calls to the police. This has also helped him to have a positive relationship with them.
Since then, Kentish Town Police have suggested to other stations that this is a strategy they could consider in their work too. Because of our joint efforts, LDN London has fostered a better relationship with the police, which is important for our charity as we need to work together regularly.
Matthew has also found much joy from seeing his artwork displayed. It has also improved his self-esteem. LDN London’s marketing team wrote about Matthew’s art gallery in its newsletter, which made Matthew immensely proud. He was so happy and pleased about it that he took lots of copies to give to his family and friends.
Without LDN London, the police may have prosecuted Matthew and Matthew would still be unnecessarily taking up their time; the police and LDN London would not have such a positive relationship; and Matthew would not have found the joy and connection from having his art shown to the wider community.
