Well it has certainly been a busy few weeks for my office as we get into the swing of our summer engagement programme, taking advantage of the sunny weather to attend community events right across Gwent.
In Caerphilly, we have had the pleasure of attending Risca Festival, Caerphilly’s ‘A Day to Remember’ armed forces event and the Big Cheese.
Each event has seen myself, my Deputy and members of my office join local teams from Gwent Police to engage with attendees, offer crime prevention advice and hand out some useful crime prevention freebies.
Importantly, these events provide my office and Gwent Police with the opportunity to provide reassurance to the public that their police service is working day in, day out, to protect them and their families.
For example, you may have recently seen an increase in the number of press articles relating to the execution of drug warrants across the Caerphilly area.
Just last week, a member of my team accompanied the Area Support Unit (ASU) to witness first-hand the excellent work taking place to remove dangerous criminals and drugs off of our streets.
During the course of the shift, the team executed a number of early morning drug warrants and stopped a number of vehicles for traffic offences including no insurance or MOT.
The overwhelming demand however was calls to incidents relating to mental health.
Sadly, this is not surprising.
People with mental health issues are some of the most vulnerable members of our community and are becoming an ever-increasing demand on our service.
It is vital that these individuals are able to access specialist support and receive the right level of help during their hour of need.
As I have stressed many times, the Police cannot provide for the security and well-being of people in mental health crisis by itself.
It is only through strong partnership working and by putting the needs of the individual first can we seek to improve the quality of service they receive.
If you need support around mental health, there are many agencies out there who can offer support including mental health charity Mind, or your local GP.