Collaborations between the law enforcement and mental health communities have become vital as law enforcement officers are often first-line responders in crisis situations involving individuals with mental illnesses. A nationally recognised example of a pre-booking jail diversion program, the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model, was developed in 1988 following a fatal police shooting of a person with a history of a mental illness. The model is a close collaboration among law enforcement, the mental health system, and advocates. CIT programs provide specialised training for police officers to assist them in safely and effectively responding to individuals with mental illnesses and obtaining appropriate services that will adequately address these individuals' needs in lieu of incarceration when appropriate. This book examines the CIT model and the reasons why it is a unique and important collaboration between law enforcement and mental health.
This is the first truly interdisciplinary book that examines how professionals work together within community mental health. It takes into account the key concepts of community mental health and combines them with current technology to develop an effective formula that redefines the community mental health practice.
This book describes the signs and symptoms of a variety of psychiatric illnesses, substance abuse disorders and developmental disabilities that may be encountered by first responders, public safety officials, and criminal justice professionals. Individual chapters describe specific categories of mental illnesses, and provide basic skills to enhance interactions with people who have these disorders, and who may be facing stressful situations.
Grounded in contemporary social work practice approaches such as trauma-informed practice, cultural competency, and systems theory, this book provides a model for developing, implementing, and evaluating police social work and social service collaboration within the context of contemporary policing strategies. The practice of professional social work in law enforcement agencies is increasingly becoming an important area of practice. Police social work, as it is known, benefits community residents and assists law enforcement agencies with accomplishing community policing and other problem-solving initiatives. Throughout 13 chapters, this book covers: The practice of professional social work within law enforcement agencies The types of social problems addressed and characteristics of police social work collaborations Ethical and other practice issues that arise when collaborating with law enforcement agencies and required practice skills to address these issues An examination of collaborations formed between law enforcement agencies and social services agencies in which the service providers are not professional social workers A model for developing police social work collaborations and investigating collaboration effectiveness Expanded roles for police social work practice such as consultation, officer selection, training recruits and police officers, and assisting their families Police Social Work provides a wealth of case studies and other reference material to prepare students for police social work practice, as well as serving as a resource for police officers, recruits, and students majoring in policing.
The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program has become a globally recognized model for safely and effectively assisting people with mental and substance use disorders who experience crises in the community. The CIT Model promotes strong community partnerships among law enforcement, behavioral health providers, people with mental and substance use disorders, along with their families and others. While law enforcement agencies have a central role in program development and ongoing operations, a continuum of crisis services available to citizens prior to police involvement is part of the model. These other community services (e.g., mobile crisis teams, crisis phone lines) are essential for avoiding criminal justice system involvement for those with behavioral health challenges ? a goal of CIT programs (Steadman & Morrissette, 2016). CIT is just one part of a robust continuum of behavioral health services for the whole community.
The Social Determinants of Mental Health aims to fill the gap that exists in the psychiatric, scholarly, and policy-related literature on the social determinants of mental health: those factors stemming from where we learn, play, live, work, and age that impact our overall mental health and well-being. The editors and an impressive roster of chapter authors from diverse scholarly backgrounds provide detailed information on topics such as discrimination and social exclusion; adverse early life experiences; poor education; unemployment, underemployment, and job insecurity; income inequality, poverty, and neighborhood deprivation; food insecurity; poor housing quality and housing instability; adverse features of the built environment; and poor access to mental health care. This thought-provoking book offers many beneficial features for clinicians and public health professionals: Clinical vignettes are included, designed to make the content accessible to readers who are primarily clinicians and also to demonstrate the practical, individual-level applicability of the subject matter for those who typically work at the public health, population, and/or policy level. Policy implications are discussed throughout, designed to make the content accessible to readers who work primarily at the public health or population level and also to demonstrate the policy relevance of the subject matter for those who typically work at the clinical level. All chapters include five to six key points that focus on the most important content, helping to both prepare the reader with a brief overview of the chapter's main points and reinforce the "take-away" messages afterward. In addition to the main body of the book, which focuses on selected individual social determinants of mental health, the volume includes an in-depth overview that summarizes the editors' and their colleagues' conceptualization, as well as a final chapter coauthored by Dr. David Satcher, 16th Surgeon General of the United States, that serves as a "Call to Action," offering specific actions that can be taken by both clinicians and policymakers to address the social determinants of mental health. The editors have succeeded in the difficult task of balancing the individual/clinical/patient perspective and the population/public health/community point of view, while underscoring the need for both groups to work in a unified way to address the inequities in twenty-first century America. The Social Determinants of Mental Health gives readers the tools to understand and act to improve mental health and reduce risk for mental illnesses for individuals and communities. Students preparing for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) will also benefit from this book, as the MCAT in 2015 will test applicants' knowledge of social determinants of health. The social determinants of mental health are not distinct from the social determinants of physical health, although they deserve special emphasis given the prevalence and burden of poor mental health.
The Ghostbusters refrain "Who you gonna call?" typically connotes a lighthearted response to an unusual problem, but in the context of a human being suffering a mental health crisis, the refrain is anything but lighthearted. In an ideal world, "who you gonna call" would be a trained mental health professional. In the real world, the cry for help is usually received by the police. Police respond because there is no one else to assist. Police officers rank mental health crisis situations as far more stressful than crimes in progress. A person, suffering from mental illness is, by definition, not fully rational. Although they are likewise not fully irrational, behavior is unpredictable, and unpredictable behavior for the police is potentially dangerous behavior. As a consequence, outcomes of engagement between law enforcement and mental health consumers are too often tragic. No organization is more concerned about inadequate response than the police themselves. Improving Police Response to Mental Illness provides best practices guidance. A national pool of experts provide both insight and recommendations, ranging from the conceptual, Atypical Situations-Atypical Responses, to the pragmatic, Law Enforcement Training Models. Written specifically for the book, each chapter addresses a given critical component, including social policy, police response alternatives, training, legal constraints, and cooperative agreements with mental health service providers. This is an indispensable volume on the subject of police and mental health and is designed for police practitioners, mental health professionals, and scholars of social policy.
Psychological Crisis Intervention: The SAFER-R Model is designed to provide the reader with a simple set of guidelines for the provision of psychological first aid (PFA). The model of psychological first aid (PFA) for individuals presented in this volume is the SAFER-R model developed by the authors. Arguably it is the most widely used tactical model of crisis intervention in the world with roughly 1 million individuals trained in its operational and derivative guidelines. This model of PFA is not a therapy model nor a substitute for therapy. Rather it is designed to help crisis interventionists stabile and mitigate acute crisis reactions in individuals, as opposed to groups. Guidelines for triage and referrals are also provided. Before plunging into the step-by-step guidelines, a brief history and terminological framework is provided. Lastly, recommendations for addressing specific psychological challenges (suicidal ideation, resistance to seeking professional psychological support, and depression) are provided.
