Annotated Bibliographies

Deane, M.W., Steadman, H.J., Borum, R., Veysey, B.M., & Morrissey, J.P. (1999). Emerging partnerships between mental health and law enforcement. Psychiatric Services, 50 (1), 99-101.

The authors of this article are affiliated with Policy Research Associates, Duke University Medical Center, and Mental health Services Research. The purpose of their study was to organize the various types of interactions between police and mental health professionals into well-defined categories. Police departments in large U.S. cities were surveyed to identify strategies they used to obtain input from the mental health system about dealing with mentally ill persons. The majority of departments in do not have a specialized strategy to respond to persons in crisis who may have a mental illness. Among those departments who have special programs to deal with mentally ill persons, three basic strategies were found: a police-based specialized police response, a police-based specialized mental health response, and a mental-health-based specialized mental health response. A limitation of the study is that it reflects only urban police departments; rural areas were not included in the survey.