Annotated Bibliographies

Dupont, R., & Cochran, S. (2000). Police response to mental health emergencies – barriers to change. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 28, 338-344.

The authors of this article represent educational, medical, and law enforcement entities. The article discusses the success of the Memphis Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model in dealing with persons who are mentally ill. CIT appears to draw on key stren gths from both the law enforcement and mental health care systems. The authors report CIT has been shown to positively impact on officer perceptions, decrease the need for higher levels of police intervention, decrease officer injuries, and re-direct thos e in crisis from the criminal justice to the health care system. Barriers in the mental health crisis systems are also addressed.