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Decriminalizing mental illness: specialized policing responses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2019

Charles Dempsey ,
Cameron Quanbeck Open the ORCID record for Cameron Quanbeck [Opens in a new window] ,
Clarissa Bush  and
Kelly Kruger
Charles Dempsey
Affiliation:
Crisis Response Support Section, Mental Evaluation Unit, Administration-Training Detail, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles, California, USA
Cameron Quanbeck*
Affiliation:
Cordilleras Mental Health Rehabilitation Center, San Mateo County Health, San Mateo, California, USA
Clarissa Bush
Affiliation:
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, University of California San Francisco School of Nursing, San Francisco, California, USA
Kelly Kruger
Affiliation:
San Francisco Police Department, San Francisco, California, USA
*
*Address correspondence to: Cameron Quanbeck, Cordilleras Mental Health Rehabilitation Center, San Mateo County Health, San Mateo, California, USA.(Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

De-institutionalization of mental health patients has evolved, over nearly 3 generations now, to a status quo of mental health patients experiencing myriad contacts with first-responders, primarily police, in lieu of care. The current institutions in which these patients rotate through are psychiatric emergency units, emergency rooms, jails, and prisons. Although more police are now specially trained to respond to calls that involve mental health patients, the criminalization of persons with mental illness has been steadily increasing over the past several decades. There have also been deaths. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model fosters mental health acumen among first responders, and facilitates collaboration among first responders, mental health professionals, and mental health patients and their families. Here, we review some modern, large city configurations of CIT, the co-responder model, the mitigating effects of critically situated community-based programs, as well as barriers to the success of joint efforts to better address this pressing problem.

Keywords

Mentally ill personscrisis interventionpolice educationinterprofessional relationsdiversionemergency services
Type
Review
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 181 - 195
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

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