Housing, Vulnerability & Mental Health in ASB
In June 2024, we were joined by Darren Burton, Partner at Green & Burton ASB Associates, for a session that tackled a question a lot of practitioners quietly grapple with: when someone is causing anti-social behaviour, are we really seeing the full picture?
The short answer, as Darren made clear, is that we often aren’t.
Vulnerability is bigger than mental health
One of the session’s most important reframes was this: vulnerability isn’t synonymous with mental health. It’s cost of living pressures, poor housing conditions, isolation, health problems, and the accumulated weight of daily challenges that many people face. When we narrow our definition, we miss people who need support — and that has real consequences.
That said, mental health does feature heavily in ASB casework, and Darren pushed practitioners to ask sharper questions about it. Does a formal diagnosis exist? How does the condition actually manifest? Crucially — is the mental health condition causing or contributing to the behaviour, or is the behaviour something else entirely? The distinction matters, both ethically and legally. Misreading it risks discrimination, complaint, and in the most serious cases, real harm.
The stakes of getting it wrong
Darren was clear-eyed about what failure looks like. When mental health and vulnerability aren’t identified and responded to early, the consequences stack up: people disengage from processes, complaints escalate, legal challenges follow. At the far end of that spectrum, unaddressed risk can be fatal. Not a comfortable point, but an important one.
Practical stuff: what good looks like
A good chunk of the session was practical, which made it particularly useful. Darren covered everything from how organisations record vulnerability data (are the right flags on the system? when was the last actual contact with that tenant?) to the detail of communication — typeface, font size, whether someone even has access to the technology you’re assuming they use.
Some specifics worth noting: neurodivergent customers need structure and clarity, not vague guidance. ADHD can manifest in very different ways around confrontation — some people seek it, some avoid it — so asking and understanding individual stress triggers matters. A specific point of contact reduces the burden of repetition for victims. And checking for understanding isn’t optional; it’s part of doing the job well.
Partnership and accountability
Effective partnership working got a good airing too. Mapping what support services actually exist locally, identifying the gaps, and — perhaps most pointedly — asking who isn’t around the table. Accountability was a theme throughout: organisations that fail to bring in healthcare professionals early, or who sidestep difficult questions because of someone’s support needs, are storing up problems.
The session closed with a question worth sitting with: how equipped is your team, really, to handle mental health and vulnerability in ASB cases? Not in theory — in practice, on a Tuesday afternoon when the caseload is heavy and the referral pathway isn’t clear.
If you’d like to find out more about this session or request a copy of the presentation slides, please get in touch at hello@scscotland.org.uk.
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